New Allies
by NikkitaTheMetahuman
Summary: Takes place during "The Beach" where Zuko, Azula, Mai and Ty lee meet 4 other teens with animals they call "Daemons." This story is the prologue of a saga based on my version of Avatar: The Last Airbender that all starts with a week at the beach. Contains a mild adventure along with fantasy, friendship, humour, slight teen romance, and siblinghood. (Cover image are my 4 OC's)
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

A boat being dragged by a Hippowalrus across the sea was making its way to Ember Island. On that boat was Prince Zuko, his sister Princess Azula and her two best friends Mai and Ty lee.

"I'm so excited about spending the weekend on Ember Island!" Ty lee said in her usual cheerful voice. "It's gonna be great to hang out on the beach and do nothing."

"Doing nothing is a waste of time!" came the unforgettable angry voice of Zuko. "We're being sent away on a forced vacation! I feel like a child."

Azula spoke while Mai just sat looking down at the floor with her arms crossed "Lighten up. So Dad wants to speak with his advisors alone; without anyone else around. Don't take it personally."

"Doesn't your family have a house on Ember Island?" Ty lee asked.

Azula responded almost immediately "We used to come every summer when we were kids."

"That must have fun."

"That was a long time ago." Zuko said coldly while looking away from the girls and out across the sea, vaguely remembering when he and Azula weren't at each other's throats like they were now. Finally, the boat was nearing the docks. Azula and Ty lee were the first to get to the exit of the boat with Zuko and Mai behind them. On the docks of Ember Island were Lo and Li, Azula's firebending teachers. When the boat arrived, the twins greeted them at the same time "Welcome to Ember Island kids". When they looked behind the two elderly women, they saw, in a long row of big fancy houses, a small hut that looked like a fancy garden shed. Zuko and Mai looked at each other wih mild shock, Ty lee's big smile turned into a small confused frown and Azula's serious face went just as confused as Ty lee's, only hers had narrow eyes and a straighter mouth. As they walked towards the house, Azula turned her head in every possible direction, hoping to find something more entertaining than the place she would be staying in for the weekend. Suddenly, as if the universe obeyed her thoughts, she saw, on the faraway beach, a girl, with what looked like a long stick in her right hand and a black horse behind her. For a few moments, the eyes of the girl and the horse seemed to meet Azula's, then they simply turned around and walked away. As Azula walked inside the house, she still had the girl in her head, as if she and her shared some kind of connection. She was cut off from her thoughts however, when she took in what the inside of Lo and Li's house was like. It was nothing compared to the royal palace. It was mainly pink and purple with hardly any red. When they were all inside, Zuko was first to break the silence in silence.

"It smells like old lady in here!" he said to Mai in a hushed voice.

"Gee, I wonder why." Mai replied in her usual grumpy, sarcastic voice.

Ty lee walked up to a portrait of two women who looked identical. They were standing behind each other in a bended position, so their butts were touching each other. Lo and Li came up to her and she asked them "Who are these two beautiful women?" The twins each went to one side of the portrait and answered Ty lee's question by mimicking the women in the portrait.

"Can't you tell? It's Lo/Li and me."

Witnessing this made the the girls look befuddled and Zuko almost vomit. They moved on to the bedroom, which had two bunkbeds with purple seashell sheets. Ty lee rushed on to one of the top bunks and snuggled down on it "Ooh, I love the seashell bedspread!"

"Are you serious? It looks like the beach threw up all over it." came Mai's voice with slight anger and disbelief.

The elder twins spoke up "We know you're upset that you were forced to come here this weekend, but Ember Island is a magical place. Keep an open mind. Give it a chance. And it can help you understand yourselves and each other." One of the twins picked up a rock and handed it to the other, who began to rub it with one of her wrinkled hands as if stroking an animal. "The beach has a special way of smoothing even the most raggid edges."

Azula merely yawned at this and as Ty lee rejoined the group, the twins pulled their clothes off revealing to be wearing beachwear the whole time. "TIME TO HIT THE BEACH!"

At the sight of this, Zuko backed away while Mai narrowed her eyes in discomfort and put her hand over his eyes without even looking behind her.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

As soon as they were all in their beachwear, and after they finally got the image of what Lo and Li did a few moments ago out of their heads, the four teens headed down to the beach. When they arrived, it was completely crowded with people. Azula lead the group to look for a place to set up their bathing towels. As they passed loads of people, she wondered why they didn't recognize her as the princess of the fire nation, as well as keeping an eye out for the girl she saw earlier. She saw two young boys building a sand castle and saw it as a place to sunbathe. She walked over to them and with one stomp, brought their castle down. As they looked up with sad faces, they ran away screaming as they saw Azula looking down at them with an evil smile. When she saw that they had left their buckets and spades behind, she kicked them away in anger.

Ty lee looked unsure about what she just witnessed, but it completely slipped from her mind when a tall, skinny boy rushed up to her.

"Heeeey!" he said in a high, weasley voice "Ya need some help unpacking?"

"Sure, thanks." she answered as she handed him the big bag she was carrying that was clearly too heavy for him as he went down with an "Ugh". But he quickly recovered, opened the bag and threw out literally everything while keeping a big, teeth-showing smile on his face. Finally, he found a towel and placed it on the sand, as well as smoothing out the wrinkles in it.

As Azula watched the entire event, she wondered why he would offer to do Ty lee's job of setting her own towel out and not that of the fire nation princess. Ty lee sat down and smiled for a few moments before putting her hand above her eyes to try and block out the sun. Then, an idea came to her head.

"Could you scooch just a little bit more to the..." before she could finish with "Right", the boy immediately moved in front of her so that his head would block the sun. The acrobat responded with "Perfect" and gave him a wink.

A couple of feet from Ty lee's left, Zuko and Mai were sitting underneath a big umbrella to try and avoid the heat. Zuko looked to his left and he saw a shell, which he thought was pretty. _"Maybe this would get Mai in a more cheerful mood!"_ he thought in his head. He picked it up and held it out to her "Here, this is for you."

But Mai's expression and voice didn't change at all "Why would I want that?"

"I saw it and thought it was pretty. Don't girls like stuff like this?"

Mai scoffed with slight anger "Maybe stupid girls."

"FORGET IT!" Zuko yelled as he threw the shell away towards a boy with huge muscles. He noticed the shell and turned around to see who threw it. When he turned around, he saw Ty lee and his dull expression turned into the complete opposite of dull. He rushed over with the shell and handed it over to her, oblivious to the boy who was keeping the sun out of her eyes.

"WOW! Thanks, this is sooo pretty!"

"Not as pretty as you are".

"THAT SHELL'S NOT SO GREAT!" yelled shade boy.

"AHEM, shade, SHAAADE!" yelled Ty lee as shade boy had stepped away and allowed the sun to penetrate her eyes.

Mai was sitting under the umbrella by herself. Zuko left a couple of moments ago for some unknown reason. Before she could wonder if she was being a little unfair to him, he came back with two ice cream cones.

"I thought since it's so hot, here" he said, but as he handed it to her, the ice cream fell on to her skirt. But once again, she kept her usual face on despite the situation and said "Thanks, this is really... refreshing" hinting slight frustration in the last word of her sentence.

Ty lee liked that 2 boys were craving for her attention, but her happiness sparked when another boy came up to her and directed her attention to a sand pagoda decorated in pink seashells. "For you" he said.

The other 2 boys noticied it and it appeared as if they had dropped dead, but they were still standing and then began glaring at him. Ty lee then called the 3 of them over to keep her cool. Shade boy held up a towel to block out the sun's rays while muscle boy and pagoda boy fanned her while she laid back in the shade.

Azula noticied some kids playing Kuai Ball and stood up to get a better view. She then smiled at the thought that if they played, then she would get some attention. She called over to her friends.

"Hey beachbums, we're playing next. TY LEE, GET OVER HERE NOW!" Ty lee left her 3 admirers by walking on her hands. Zuko pulled off his robe to reveal his chest and went over to the Kuai Ball court with Mai, completely oblivious to the group of 4 girls who were blushing and giggling at him. As their opponents decided to stretch before playing, Azula called her team mates in for a strategy huddle "See that girl over there with the silly pigtails?" They all looked to see a girl with pigtails. She had a tough look on her face and was playing Keepy Uppy with the ball. "When she runs towards the ball, there's just the slightest hestitation of her left foot. I'm willing to bet a childhood injury has weakened her. Keep serving the ball to her left and we'll destroy her and the rest of her team. Dismissed!"

They got into position to play. The girl with the pigtails gave Azula the ball as it was a rule that the challenger team starts with the ball. She threw the ball into the air and with one kick downwards, it flew past each of her opponents and landed just on the edge of the line. When the opposing team served the ball, Zuko dove and kicked it high in the air. Azula served to the left and just as she predicted, the girl with pigtails dove but missed it by an inch. The ball then bounced off and landed near two boys, who threw the ball back to the court. They continued to watch the game, especially Ty lee, who jumped up, kicked the ball downwards and landed on the net, and Mai, who ran as fast as she could and kicked the ball high in the air with her knee. Zuko knelt down while Azula jumped on his back. He then elevated her into the air and Azula kicked the ball downwards so hard that it caused a powerful explosion. Azula stood with hands in fists and an evil grin on her face.

"YES, WE'VE DEFEATED YOU FOR ALL TIME! YOU WILL NEVER RISE FROM THE ASHES OF YOUR SHAME AND HUMILLIATION!" She then turned to Zuko, Mai and Ty lee and returned to her usual calm voice "Well, that was fun."

The two boys who had been watching the game walked over to the four teens. The taller one of the two spoke to Ty lee "I'm having a party tonight, you should come by."

"Sure, I love parties."

His companion spoke "Your friend can come too" while looking at Mai, who merely looked towards them. Azula came up to them with her arms crossed "Um, what about me and my brother? Aren't you going to invite us?" The boys just looked at each other in confusion. Azula then realized why. "You don't know who we are, do you?"

"Don't you know who _we_ are? We're Chan and Ruon-jian"

"Yeah"

Zuko started to walk up to them with anger on his face, but was stopped by Azula, who didn't need to look behind her as she knew her brother too well.

"But, fine, you're invited" Chan replied reluctantley. "Just so you know though, some of the most important teenagers in the fire nation are gonna be at this party so, try and act normal."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

" **Important teenagers**?!" came a voice from behind the four teens. They turned around to see who the voice had come from. Behind them was a girl who looked to be 14. She was in a red top with only one short sleeve, a matching red skirt and red and yellow sandals. She had long, black hair, brown eyes and a rebellious smirk on her face. She was carrying what looked like a long stick. Azula instantly recognized her as the girl that she saw earlier and unknown to her, Zuko, Mai and Ty lee secretly thought in their heads that other than the hair and eyes, this girl greatly resembled Azula, almost as if they were twins. The girl continued in a sarcastic, yet superior sounding voice.

"Oh **_please_** , that's what you say to everyone you invite to your parties and no one " **important** " shows up!"

"Well, if it isn't the famous riff-raff of Ember Island!" Ruon-jian said with a smirk on his face, to which Chan backed him up by laughing at his insult. The four teens watched in confusion as the expression on the girl's face didn't seem to change "Famous riff-raff?! Aw, good to know you think about me. But then again, how you could you forget about the one person who doesn't shy away from humiliating you?" she said mockingly.

The two boys were clearly getting annoyed at this girl, as Azula saw their hands tightening into fists. Chan then walked right up to the girl and spoke down to her while she glared up at him with narrow eyes "Just keep away from my house and everywhere else you're not welcome to, the last thing the whole world needs is a trouble-making waste of space like you." With that, the boys walked away laughing. The girl tightened her grasp on her staff, almost tight enough to make her hand bleed. Azula wasn't the only person to notice this. Ty lee awkwardly walked up to her slowly and asked in a quiet voice "Hey, are you okay?"

The girl looked to Ty lee with a small smile, as if nothing had happened "Oh, yeah I'm okay, I'm used to stuff like that."

Azula then felt an unknown urge to ask the girl with no name a question "Who are you?"

She sighed and turned to Azula and her friends with a friendly smile "First rule to all newbies on Ember Island: if you want to get accepted and not get treated like I was a few seconds ago, then the last thing you want is to know who _I_ am."

The four teens, even Mai a little, looked confused at what she had said. After a few moments of silence, Zuko spoke to her "Couldn't we at least know your name?"

She looked downwards for a few seconds, as if she was thinking and then gave them an answer, but not the kind they were expecting "Tell ya what, you kids go to that party and if you don't like it and still wanna know who I am, I'll be on that side of the island". As she spoke her last sentence, she gestured her staff to the right to point towards a house in the distance. It seemed to be cut off from the rest of Ember Island. As she started to walk away, Mai spoke in her dull voice "There's a black mouse on your right shoulder." Azula, Zuko and Ty lee were slightly surprised at what Mai said, but then they looked more closely at her shoulder and could make out a black mouse, slightly blending in with her hair.

"Aaaand... there's a strawberry ice cream stain on your skirt" the girl remarked while mimicking Mai's dull expression and tone of voice. Mai's eyes slightly widened at this, especially considering that the girl didn't even look down at her skirt and that she knew the ice cream flavour.

"By the way, she isn't a real mouse; Pekkala's actually a daemon." And with that final sentence, she walked off to the house she had pointed to, leaving the four teens now more confused than ever.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

The four teens went back to their towels after the fight between Chan and Ruon jian and the girl with no name. Zuko and Mai went back under their umbrella in silence, trying to loose the heat, or at least Mai was trying to loose the heat while Zuko secretly wished he could get Mai to stop being so gloomy and cranky and try to have some fun, but instead chose to keep quiet as everything he tried so far only seemed to make it worse. Ty lee, meanwhile, was distracted at trying to keep her now-5 admirers from killing each other so that only one of them got her attention. The 2 new ones had watched her play volleyball and came to compliment on how she played, at least until they noticied her 3 current admirers, which caused a 5-way male cougadillo fight until Ty lee distracted them by asking if someone could stop this unbearable heat from penetrating her skin and like loyal poodle monkeys, they all obeyed her "wish." Azula merely sat on her beach towel in the sun, secretly thinking about the girl from earlier. Seeing her get insulted like that was making the princess feel strange on the inside.

 _"Why do I feel this way?"_ Azula thought in her head. _"Is it because she got insulted infront of us and we didn't do anything about it? I mean, I hardly even know her and I feel slightly... sorry for her. Is that the word? "Sorry?" Also, why did I feel something before when I saw her earlier? It's like I can sense something special about her, I just don't know what it is or why I even feel it."_

Azula was snapped out of her thoughts when she looked around and saw Chan and Ruon jian about 15 feet behind her with two other girls. One girl was taller than the other and had her black hair in a big bun, while the shorter one had her chesnut brown in a long pony tail. Azula decided, out of curiousity, to listen in on what they had to say. She leaned back slightly so she could hear their conversation better. Chan began the conversation by greeting the two girls.

"Hey Karmel, Trish!"

"Hey!" replied both girls at the same time.

"Are you two gonna come over to the party tonight?"

The taller one spoke "Of course, since when do we miss a party? But we're gonna be a bit late. Not just because we have to decide what to wear, but we thought of playing a little prank on "The Weirdo Queen". Then when we come to the party, we'll all have something to laugh about."

"Now that... is a pure, gold idea... and don't worry about arriving late; we'll be partying from dusk til dawn" Chan answered with enthusiasm.

"By the way, we saw her walking over to the two of you and that group of teens. What was happening?"

"Wadda you think, Karm? Obvisously her trying to cause some trouble like she always does." Ruon jian replied in a superior voice. Azula assumed that "Karm" was short for "Karmel" and that her slightly smaller friend must be Trish, who then spoke to the group.

"Yeah, what else do you expect from her? She _has_ been that way ever since she was born. And we know her parents regret not sending her to the Ember Island Facility/Orphanage, that's why they finally took off 5 years ago" The four teens then laughed at this, making Azula's blood boil with confusing rage. As they parted ways, Azula went back to thinking _"Maybe we will see her again after all."_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

After a long day at the beach, the sun finally started to set and the royal fire teens and their 2 friends went home and had their tea at Lo and Li's hexagon table on the balcony. Azula sat next to Ty lee, Zuko sat next to Mai and Lo and Li sat across from each other.

Zuko felt the need to ask Azula about today and why he chose at dinner and not on the beach would remain an enigma "Why didn't you tell those guys who we were?"

Azula chose to answer honestly "I guess I was... intrigued, I'm so use to people worshipping us."

"They should" added Ty lee, who felt the need to support her friend.

"Yes, I know, and I love it. But for once, I just want see how people would treat us if they didn't know who we were."

Lo and Li then started talking "Like waves washing away the footprints on the sand, Ember Island gives everyone a clean slate. Ember Island reveals the true you." As the four teens gave uncomfortable looks, the twins then stood up, clapped their hands, clicked their fingers and raised up one of their hands in a fist; all while mirroring each other. They finished their little performance by saying "To the party!"

That did it. They had been on Ember Island for only 1 day and the elderly twins had creeped them out twice. They finished their tea as quickly as they could (before the twins could do anymore crazy things that would haunt them for eternity) and went to their dormitories to get ready for the party. Zuko grabbed the clothes he'd be wearing for the party and went to the bathroom to get changed in private as well as giving the girls privacy. Ty lee obvisously wore a pink outfit to suit her aura. Mai wore an outfit simillar to earlier, but the skirt was more fancier and she also had a light blanket scarf over her shoulders. Azula decided to wear red and have her hair down for the party. As a princess, she had to be as formal and lady like as possible. But tonight, she would try to be someone different. Ty lee felt the need to ask something since the events on the beach "Do you think we should go and see that girl?"

This slightly shocked both Azula and Mai, but neither of them showed it. Mai then spoke "Why would we go see her?"

"Well, those boys were mean to her and we didn't do anything! We just watched, and also, what do you think she meant by "daemon"?"

Mai, wanting this discussion to end, spoke this time "She's probably just one of those loony kids who believes in magic and witches or something."

"She didn't seem loony" Ty lee said quietly while looking at the ground with her big innocent eyes. She then looked up towards Azula "What do you think Azula?"

Azula wasn't sure how to respond, but did so awkwardly "Well... yeah, she did get insulted, but she said she was use to it and she didn't just let them insult her, she stood up to them."

Before Ty lee could try to defend the girl again, the door suddenly opened, startling the trio. When they saw it was Zuko, they sighed in slight frustration "Have you ever heard of knocking Zuko?!" Azula asked.

"Yes, but I've been in the bathroom for a while, so it's not like you were talking without clothes on."

Azula scoffed "Dum dum."

Zuko then shouted at her "DON'T CALL ME THAT!" while Ty lee snickered quietly. Mai just simply asked "Are we going yet?"

Azula looked outside "Well, it is dusk and that's when the party starts, so lets go."

As they walked to Chan's house, Zuko looked towards the hills that he and Azula use to chase each other on when they were kids. He remembered how they use to reenact the final battle in Love Amongst Dragons.

* * *

 _Flashback:_

 _Zuko was 7. Azula was 5. They had just watched Love Amongst Dragons by the Ember Island players and were running over the hills back to their house, their parents walking far behind them._

 _"I can't believe Mum actually enjoys that play! The Ember Island players are rubbish!" Zuko said to his sister._

 _Azula agreed "Especially the fight scene at the end." Then, an idea came to her head "You know what we should do? We should reenact the final battle, I'll be the dragon emperor and you be the dark water spirit!"_

 _"Why do I have to be the dark water spirit?!"_

 _"Because it was my idea Dum dum."_

 _"Ugh, fine."_

 _Azula cleared her throat before speaking "Wretched water spirit! Now that I've escaped your curse and regained my true nature, you shall pay for your trickery!"_

 _"Have you learned nothing from your time amongst the mortals? By threatning me, you invite your own doom!"_

 _The two siblings charged at each other, locking hands. Azula then pushed herself from the ground, causing her and Zuko to roll down the hill. When they stopped rolling, Azula was on top of Zuko and playfully hit him with her tiny fists over and over. Zuko then shouted "NOOO! Curse you foul dragon!" He and Azula then broke down laughing while still lying in the sand._

* * *

Zuko wondered how those memories were possible to exist as he and Azula hardly do anything siblingy anymore. Little did he know that Azula remembered them to and wondered the same thing herself. She remembered having to sit through an entire play that the actors ruined with their acting and afterwards, how she and Zuko would reenact the final battle. She too wondered how those memories were true.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

They finally made it to Chan's house. Azula knocked on the door with the lion turtle knocker. As she did, Ty lee stood behind her smiling innocently, Mai looked down at her nails and Zuko looked in the distance to his family's old summer house. The door opened moments after Azula knocked on it, revealing Chan.

"Um you're a little early, no one's here yet."

"I heard you telling someone you'd be partying from dusk til dawn. It's dusk, so we're here." Azula said, remembering the conversation that she overheard between him, Ruon-jian and the two girls from earlier on the beach.

Chan stared at her with dumbfoundedness "But that's just an expression."

"We are the perfect party guests. We arrive right on time because we are very punctual."

Chan shrugged off what she said and motioned them to come inside. Azula walked in first, followed by Ty lee, followed by Zuko, followed by Mai. When they walked in, they saw a long table with food all over it and Ruon jian at a mirror fixing his hair. Chan spoke as they walked in "Alright listen, my dad's an admiral and he has no idea i'm throwing this party, so don't mess anything up." While speaking the last part of his sentence, he turned with a stern look on his face to Azula, who smiled at this given information.

 _"Hmmm, his parents are unaware that he's throwing a party, which means there's no reason for this place to be a complete mess when they get back. This could be useful for later on..."_

As Chan turned away, Azula decided to flirt with him, thinking that that was what girls do, by giving him a compliment "That's a sharp outfit Chan. Careful. You could puncture the hull of an empire class fire nation battle ship, leaving thousands to drown at sea..." she said while zoning out as if she had forgotten her original point. Then, she remembered and went back to it by finishing her "compliment" while pointing at his outfit "... because... it so sharp."

"Uh... thanks" he awkwardly replied with a frown and a smile. When he walked away, Azula's smile turned into a childish frown. The teens continued to walk in a single file line. As they passed Ruon-jian, he saw them in the mirror he was looking into and started showing off with his hair "Hey, first ones here, huh?"

Zuko glared at him in anger "Pft, he thinks he's so great." He waited for Mai to speak, but she didn't, so he asked her "Well, what do you think of him?"

"I don't have any opinion about him, I hardly know him." Zuko noticied that there was a change in her voice. Rather than being dull and sounding meaningless, it was defensive and sounded offended. Knowing Mai as well as anyone, he suspected only one reason for it "You like him, don't you?"

Mai simply scoffed and continued walking. Zuko looked back to Ruon jian and then continued walking, unaware that Ruon jian's smile got bigger.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

Soon enough, the house was crowded with other teens. Zuko and Mai chose to sit on the couch, uninterested in talking to other people. Azula leaned against a support beam with her arms crossed, still unsure of why no one recognised her as the fire nation princess, despite her wanting to see how people would treat her if they weren't aware of her identity. But nobody came up to talk to her, so she didn't even get her a chance to find out. She looked over to a corner and saw Ty lee and her 5 admirers, which filled her with... what was the word she was looking for?... "Jealousy", the green eyed monster?... possibly, since her friend who, compared to a princess, was just the daughter of a nobleman. Azula assumed that Ty lee was happy to get all that attention. But, she wasn't. Ty lee's admirers were growing tired of her wanting attention from all of them at once, making it harder for her to keep them under control.

"So how do you know Ty lee?" asked Muscle boy to Pagoda boy.

"I met her at the beach today. She was pretty impressed by a sand pagoda that I made for her." answered Pagoda boy, sounding smug with his arms crossed and eyes closed with a smile on his face. Shade boy rushed into the conversation.

"Well, _**I**_ met her first!" he said in his angry, squeaky voice. Then, they all looked at Ty lee with staring eyes and big smiles, all trying to look like the good guy. They had her backed into a corner with nowhere to go. She tried desperatly to get them to stop.

"Look, it-it doesn't matter who I met first, cos I like you all!" she said with a nervous smile on her face.

"But which one of us do you "Like?""

"Yeah!"

"Tell us!"

Ty lee couldn't hold her panic in her anymore "I DON'T KNOW, I DON'T KNOW!" Quickly, she chi-blocked all five of them with one punch per boy. When they all fell, she cart-wheeled over them and walked to Azula, who turned her head away from her as she spoke.

"Oh I'm glad you're here. Those boys won't leave me alone! I guess they all just like me too much!"

Azula was sick of her acting all cheerful and decided to lay down what she thought "Come on Ty lee, you can't be this ignorant."

Ty lee's smile turned into a sad frown with frightened eyes "What are you talking about?"

"Those boys only like you because you make it so easy for them! You're not a challenge, you're a tease. It's not like they actually care who you are."

Ty lee couldn't control the tears in her eyes and started to cry, covering her face so that no one else would see her like this. Azula saw this and regretted it instantly. She took her friend's wrists and pulled them away from the acrobat's face "Okay okay, calm down, I didn't mean what I said." Then, she decided to be honest "Look, maybe I just said it because I was... a little...ugh jealous." the last word she said in a whisper and covered her mouth with her hand.

"What?" Ty lee in with surprise and confusion "You're jealous of me? But, you're the most beautiful, smartest, perfect girl in the world."

Azula turned away in shame as she spoke about the one thing she couldn't figure out to do "Well, you're right about all those things. But for some reason, when I meet boys, they act as if I'm going to do something horrible to them."

Ty lee couldn't help but giggle softly at this as she thought it was sweet that her friend really didn't know how to get a guy to like her "But you probably would do something horrible to them. I'm sure they're just intimidated by you." Azula turned her face so Ty lee could see her. Seeing her friend still upset about this gave Ty lee an idea on how to fix it "Okay look, if you want a boy to like you, just look at him and smile a lot and laugh at everything he says, even if it's not funny."

Azula smiled at her friend giving her advice, but turned away again after thinking over what Ty lee had told her "Well that sounds really shallow and stupid" came Azula's answer. But then she thought that it couldn't hurt to put it to the test "Lets try it."

"Okay" Ty lee deepened her voice to sound like a boy "Hey there, sweet sugar cakes, how ya liking this party?"

Azula laughed a little too loud, so loud that eveyone turned to her.

Zuko and Mai were still seated on the couch, not facing each other when Mai spoke "I'm bored."

"I know" was Zuko's reply.

She spoke again "I'm hungry."

"So what?"

"So, find me some food."

Rather than asking her why she couldn't get food herself, Zuko agreed to do so. "Sure"..." _Beats doing nothing on the couch with your emotionless girlfriend."_

After recovering from her slight mistake, Azula decided to try again. She went up to Chan, who was speaking to another girl. " _Not like this will complicate things. I'll just simply butt in because it's not like she'll do anything about it."_ She spoke up "Chan, I'm ready for a tour of the house." Chan handed his glass to the girl and motioned Azula to follow him. The girl looked shocked but didn't do anything, just as Azula predicted. To prove both her theory further and her superiority over others, she placed her glass on the girl's head. All the girl did was get so angry, that she was able to heat up the drink on her head.

As Azula and Chan walked on to the balcony, Chan asked her "Is this your first time on Ember Island?"

"No, I used to come here years ago."

"It's a great place... if you like sand."

Azula didn't find the joke funny, but she heeded Ty lee's words and laughed a bit more normal. This encouraged Chan to continue "Yeah it's like "Welcome to Sandy Land!"" They both laughed this time. Chan then walked over to her and Azula looked down at his arms "Your arms look so strong."

"Yeah, I know" he said while flexing one of his arms. Just as he leaned in to kiss her after a few seconds of staring into each other's eyes, Azula interupted the silence "Can I ask why you said those things to that girl earlier on the beach?"

Chan was startled at this as he thought they were gonna kiss and slightly frustrated that he mentioned _her_. He gave her an answer, but not the kind that she wanted "Look, all you and your friends need to know about her is that she's a troublemaker who isn't worthy of anything, including a name."

This discussion was making Azula feel uncomfortable and she decided that she would go and see the girl for answers since that was apparantly the only way she was going to get proper answers "I think I'm gonna go now." But as she walked passed him, Chan tightly grabbed her wrist and pulled her back to him. She tried pulling away, but he wouldn't let go.

"Just where d'ya think you're going?!"

"Let go!"

Chan then smirked "Yeah, what are you gonna do about it?

Something snapped in the girl who was supposed to be a normal girl and awoke the flame buried deep in the soul of Azula, Princess of the Fire Nation. She decided to show this boy what she was capable of. She put on her war face and ignited her free hand with her special blue flame. Then, she spoke as fiercely as she could "Unless you want me to burn the entire house down, I SUGGEST YOU LET GO OF ME AND GET OUT OF MY WAY!"

Chan froze and decided to listen to her "Ugh, I gotta go." He released his grip on her wrist and walked quickly downstairs. Azula kept her serious look on Chan until he was gone. Then her face was guilt ridden. _"Maybe I was a little too harsh."_


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

Downstairs, Zuko had gotten some food for Mai but as he was walking back to her, a boy accidently knocked the food out of his hand and on to the floor.

"HEY WATCH IT! THAT FOOD WAS FOR MY CRANKY GIRLFRIEND!" he shouted while pointing to where Mai was sat. When the boy turned his head to where Zuko was pointing, his expression changed from fear to confusion. Zuko turned his head to see the reason for this change, but what he saw horriffied him for life. Ruon jian was talking to Mai, but what was even more shocking was that Mai was actually smiling! He rushed over and pushed Ruon jian away from Mai, unaware that the boy who caused him to drop the food was holding back laughter.

"What are you doing?!" Ruon-jian asked while fixing his hair.

"Stop talking to my girlfriend!" Zuko said while baring his teeth.

Ruon jian walked up to Zuko with a smile "Relax, it's just a party."

He came too close for Zuko, who pushed him so hard, that he crashed into and broke a vase. Mai, who for some reason couldn't keep bottled up, forced Zuko to look at her as she shouted at him "Zuko, what's wrong with you?!"

"What's wrong with _me_?!"

"Your temper's out of control! You blow up over every little thing! You're so impatient and hot-headed and angry!"

"WELL AT LEAST I **_FEEL_** SOMETHING, AS OPOSSED TO YOU! YOU HAVE NO PASSION FOR ANYTHING! YOU'RE JUST A BIG BLAH!"

Mai then turned away and returned to her normal voice to keep Zuko from seeing her upset "It's over Zuko, we're done." Zuko looked shocked and was about to shout back, but then decided against it and looked away from Mai.

Just as Ruon jian got up, Chan came rushing in after hearing a crashing sound and saw a broken vase "WHO BROKE MY NANA'S VASE?!" Ruon jian pointed to Zuko. Chan then rushed over to Zuko "That's it, you're outta here!" He stepped back when Zuko came slightly forward "I was just leaving." As he walked away, Ruon jian regained his confidence.

"Have fun by yourself, LOSER BOY!"

"Nice."

Zuko slammed the door shut as he left. Azula, who noticied the commotion after coming back from the balcony, decided that it was time for them all to leave. She went over to Ty lee, who was in shock after what had just happended. Azula asked her "What just happend?"

Ty lee spoke in a sad, quiet voice "Zuko and Mai publicly broke up after his temper went too far."

Azula sighed " _Typical Zuzu_ , come on we're leaving as well, lets go get Mai." They walked over to Mai, who remained still with her arms crossed. "Come on, we're going." Mai didn't want to go, but she didn't disobey. As they were walking to the door, Ruon jian went in front of them "Hey! Why are you leaving?"

Azula really wasn't in the mood for this, but she restrained herself from firebending her way out of this situation this time. There were people watching the commotion and there was a high chance that some of them might recognise her due to her blue firebending and it was best to keep it a secret in order to see what people really think of her. "Maybe because of what you said to my brother?"

"Hey, he pushed me into a vase! How is me insulting him much worse than that?!"

Azula tried simply getting to the main point "Just get out of our way."

"Or what? You think I'm intimidated by a _**girl**_?" he said, pointing his finger near Azula's face. Once again, she felt something inside her snap, knowing that these people should be grovelling at her feet. Suddenly, she grab his shirt near his neck and pulled him closer to her, startling everyone.

"I'll admit your tough enough to insult others and survive being pushed into a vase, but what are the chances of you surviving a shove into the door?"

This left Ruon jian frozen with wide eyes for a few seconds, (5 to be precise). "Actually, you can go!" he finally said in a high, fearful voice and with a wide, fearful smile on his face. She let go of him and he walked quickly away from them. As they walked out, Ruon jian managed to get everyone in a party mood again by telling them what Karmel and Trish were planning on doing tonight while Chan walked downstairs away from the crowd and into a basement. He walked up to a small table, on it was what looked like an orb held in what looked like a black hand with long fingers "It's Chan, the admiral's son. Listen, there are some new kids here and I think they should be taken into your facility."

"What's so special about these kids?" came a menacing whisper from the orb.

"They're like "her". In fact, they're probably going to her right now for answers and they may tell others about it when they leave."

There was a long pause of silence "Very well, we'll see to it... just not tonight..."

* * *

 **Spooky cliffhanger, right?! First off, I'm glad to see that 75Check57 & Izi Wilson have added my first fanfiction to their list of favourite stories. Second off, thank you to the first 2 reviewers (whoever they are, as their only put as "Guests.") Third off, it's my mum's birthday tomorrow as well as Father's day, so this will be the last chapter you'll be recieving until after tommorrow. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

As Azula, Mai and Ty lee walked out of Chan's house and downwards to the beach, they saw Zuko standing on the sand, looking upwards to his family's beach house in the distance. Azula sighed "Lets go." Mai showed no sign of reluctance, but she walked slightly behind Azula and Ty lee, as she was in no hurry to go to her now-ex boyfriend. As Azula came up closer to him, she spoke "So come on Zuzu, what happend back at the party?"

Zuko looked behind him to see Azula with dull anger "First off, quit calling me that." Azula sighed with amusement, knowing that he had been saying that for ages. "Second off, ask Mai or her new boyfriend what happend."

"Ugh, he's not my boyfriend Zuko! In fact, he was only just talking to me, he wasn't being flirty."

"So why did you leave a guy who was able to make you smile?!"

Mai then realized what got Zuko so angry at Ruon jian; he was able to get her to smile, but unwanting to talk about this in front of Azula and Ty lee, Mai answered his question "Azula decided to leave the party."

"Okay, why did you decide to leave?" Zuko asked while turning his gaze away from Mai and back towards his sister instead.

"I think we should go and see that girl from earlier."

"WHY?" all three of them asked at the same time while looking at Azula. Ty lee then spoke again "I thought you didn't want to see her."

"True, but after everything I've witnessed today, she seems like the only person who's acted nice to us since we came here and she might give us real answers." Before she could continue, Azula then sensed something familiar that was coming from the shadows. As she stared intensely, Zuko and Mai turned in confusion to face where she was looking while Ty lee, who was slightly shivering behind Azula, looked with fearful eyes. And then, a figure came out, revealing it to be the girl with the stick-like staff in her hand and the black mouse, this time plainly seen on her shoulder, due to her wearing a purple cloak that was clearly worn and had a hood on the back. She also had brown pants and black shoes and socks. When she spoke, she sounded impressed and surprised "I have to admit, I really thought you guys would leave that party earlier, I'm surpirised you could stand to stay in there for so long."

"How long were you there for?!" Ty lee asked, feeling slightly freaked out.

"Long enough. I would've come out sooner, but I thought I'd wait until you were finished talking."

"Okay" Azula said with uncertainty "Then, what are you doing here?"

She walked over to Azula "Well first, I heard how you and your brother were able to stand up to Chan and Ruon jian, I really admire both your guts" she said looking from Azula to Zuko and then back to Azula "But to a more serious matter, the main reason I came after you guys is that if you stay here, you'll be in big trouble."

This confused everyone, but what shocked them further was when the mouse jumped off the girl's shoulder and half way in the air, it transformed into a solid black jaguar with white rosettes. But nothing could compare to what the black jaguar did next "You know, we could discuss this in a more safer location" came a sarcastic voice from the jaguar's mouth.

Azula had had enough craziness for one day and demanded answers "Ok, who are you and how exactly have you got a talking animal that can change from a mouse to a jaguar?!"

"If I give you my name, will you come with me and Pekkala so we can tell you everything?"

The teeens all looked at each other and after a look of agreement from everyone, Azula gave her their answer "Yes."

"Nikki. My name's Nikki. Come on."

After an entire day of confusion, they finally had at least one of their many questions answered. The girl who called herself Nikki walked towards where she had gestured to earlier, the teens followed her, unknowing of what was coming up next...


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

They continued walking until they saw a small house in need of repair. Just outside it was a fire and around that fire were 6 figures. They were 3 boys, each with an animal near them. One of the boys had short black hair, brown eyes that were similar to Nikki and a white dog at his feet. One had gold eyes, black hair tied up in a bun and a wolf on his left side with dark grey fur on top and white on the bottom. The other had short orange hair, gentle-looking blue eyes, silver bands on his wrists and what looked like a cross between a wolf and dog on his right side with maroon fur and a silver collar around his neck. The boy with similar characteristics to Nikki looked towards the group of 5 approaching them and stood up. As he did, the white dog got up from lying down and ran over to them and as it did, it slowly turned into a white tiger and when it fully turned, it stopped at Pekkala and placed its right paw over her neck, as if it were hugging her. As the 2 big cats walked over to the fire and lied down rubbing their heads against each other, the wolf and wolfdog got up and walked over to join them. While doing so, the wolf turned into a clouded leopard and the wolfdog turned into a caracal. Now, Azula, Zuko, Mai and Ty lee were getting more freaked out than before.

"Hey Nikki, where have you been?" asked the boy version of Nikki with a smile.

"Inviting the newbies of Ember Island to join us after they left the party of patheticness obviously" she replied.

He looked over her to see the group as Nikki spoke to them "This is Abner, he's my brother and that's his daemon Iorek" she said while gesturing her staff to the tiger. When they reached the fire, she introduced the others. She started with the boy with black hair tied up in a bun "This here is Tengshu and the clouded leopard is his daemon Pantalaimon, but we nickname them Tegs and Pan for short and over there is Balto and the caracal is his daemon Jahar." The 2 boys waved at the group as they came over to sit down around the fire. Azula sat next to Abner, Nikki sat with Tegs, who gave her a hug as she sat down, Ty lee sat between Balto and Mai while smiling a little at Balto, who returned her shy smile with one of his own. Zuko decided to sit next to Azula as he didn't want things between him and Mai to become more awkward than they already were. When everyone was sat down, Azula spoke to Nikki "Okay, so who exactly are you people and what do you mean by "daemons"?"

Nikki sighed before addressing all 4 of them "Okay, if we're to trust you with our personal lives, you have to promise not to tell anyone, and I'm being serious about this, it's a no laughing matter that endangers anyone who gets involved with us."

This time, Zuko spoke for the group "Again, we're certain, we just want answers about you because no one else will tell us."

"Okay, well first, a daemon is in a way an animal and also not an animal. Every person in the world has a daemon. It's like a part of your soul that can be shown to others if you choose to take your daemon. That way, you can tell what people's hidden personalities are based on the animal form that their daemon takes."

"So you're somehow similar to a mouse and a jaguar, both in the colour black." Mai said sarcastically, unwilling to believe any of this nonsense. Nikki was well aware of this, but for now, disregarded it and continued.

"A mouse and a jaguar both symbolize stealth, sneakiness and timidness, but Pekkala comes out as a jaugar when I can be more sociable."

Ty lee had a question "How come when in jaguar form, Pekkala has white rosettes instead of black? Not that I don't like them, but I've never seen white rosettes before." Pekkala walked up to Ty lee and rubbed her head aganist her hand while purring. Ty lee smiled at this gesture made by Pekkala then stroked her head.

"That's because the colour of your daemon shows your aura. Mine's all dark, but with a speck of light in the middle. Also, the colour white symbolizes my magic abilities."

"Okay, now you're just being silly, there's no way magic or auras exists" came Mai's voice.

Balto decided to give Nikki a break and defend his and her faith in the black arts "FWI, magic and auras are both real. My family knows more about this stuff than anyone."

"Can you prove magic's real?" asked Mai.

Nikki simply stared at Mai, as if mimicking Mai's dull facial expression, and flicked her free hand upwards. As she did, different coloured sparks came from her hand and the sand rose from the ground and stayed in mid air. Other than Zuko, the boys didn't seem impressed as they knew about this already. Zuko, however, was as shocked as Mai and it was shown plainly on their faces. Ty lee stared with awe and fascination while Azula's eyes merely widened slightly at what just happend infront of them, though deep down, she felt the same way Ty lee did "Is that enough proof cos I can go further?" Nikki asked.

"No, that's enough, could you please stop now, it's really creeping me out." Zuko said in a slightly panicky voice and also before Mai decided to challenge Nikki further. She obeyed and flicked her hand again. Like before, little coloured sparks came from her hand and the sand instantly dropped back on to the ground.

"How on earth did you discover you could do magic?!" asked Ty lee.

"To be honest, I'm not entirely certain myself. But it was probably around the time when I discovered this" she said while holding out her staff in both her hands.

* * *

 **Hello again! Just read the latest review and yes... but that doesn't mean it's going to include characters from the Golden Compass because it doesn't. Although, daemons in the world of avatar are simillar to those in His Dark Materials. Plus, some daemon names are going to be used as I find them as really good names. One more thing, chapter 11 is completed, but i'm slightly stuck on how chapter 12 is going, so I'm not sure when i'll update.**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

"How come you're still holding on to it, what's it even for?" Azula asked, secretly eager to know more about Nikki and her friends, but mainly Nikki.

"Well... it's the reason I'm not a helpless nonbender... as well as being partly the reason why I'm not dead."

Before Azula could ask what she meant by that, Nikki's face suddenly tensed and looked towards some bushes, so Azula chose to stay silent. Nikki then turned to Balto with a small smirk on her face "Hey Balto, do you want to go check if the CS are on their night patrol?" while she spoke to Balto, she pointed to the bushes with her free hand that was hidden infront of her body. Balto noticied this and smiled.

"Yeah sure, I could do with a bit of excitement, lets go Jahar." As he got up and ran off past the cliff side with Jahar following him in caracal form, Zuko asked "What exactly do you mean by "CS?"

"I'll be happy to explain, but first this..." as Nikki finished with a big smile on her face, she gestured to the bushes and as they all turned to where she was pointing, they heard screaming. Balto and Jahar came out of the bushes with the 2 girls that Azula recognized as Karmel and Trish, their heads locked in Balto's arms and then, he let go of them as he came up to the group. Pekkala, Iorek and Pan followed Jahar's actions and started growling softly and baring their teeth as they saw the 2 girls. Azula guessed that went Balto left, he circled back round the cliff and it lead him to the backside of the bushes; where he found Karmel and Trish hiding.

"Right, fess up, what are you 2 doing lurking about around here?!" Balto asked with small hints of rage in his voice as he threw them to the ground.

Karmel spoke as she and Trish stood up and brushed sand of their dresses "We weren't lurking and as your beloved cousins, we feel like we're being mistreated."

Nikki just stared with controlled anger until she couldn't take it. She started to walk over to them and as she did, her staff changed into what looked like a wooden baseball bat "That's it, batter up."

Both girls screamed and tried backing up, but they fell on their backs. Before Nikki had a chance, Abner came up and stopped her "No battering."

"OH COME ON!" she shouted in a childish voice, but Abner kept a stern look on her until she accepted defeat "Fine" she said in a sulky voice before slightly backing away, but not taking her eyes off the 2 girls; as if giving them a warning. Abner then turned to Karmel and Trish "Now, I suggest you say what you're doing here before I lose control of my sister."

Both girls remained silent, as if trying to come up with a story, so Azula decided to weigh in "They're probably here to pull some prank on you that they were talking about earlier on the beach." Everyone turned to Azula with wide eyes. Nikki then asked "You certain?"

Azula thought over it and remembered how the girls referred to her "Have they ever referred to you as "The Weirdo Queen"?"

Nikki eyes went wider than before, then they went as narrow as possible when she turned back to Karmel and Trish with clear anger written all over her "Okay, forget battering" her staff turned from a baseball bat into what looked like a wooden sword "I'm gonna chop their heads in two."

"Hold it in for a bit longer" Abner said as he raised his left hand slightly upwards to stop her going forward. Nikki groaned in frustration yet listened to her brother's words again and the wooden sword turned back into a staff.

"Yeah, listen like "normal" girls for once in your life" Karmel said.

"If that's even possible" Trish mumbled to Karmel, causing both girls to giggle.

"Don't get cocky" came Tegs' deep voice.

"Oooooooooooh, scary" they both said mockingly, getting them glares from the 4 four teens who clearly knew them well. Karmel looked over to see Azula and headed towards her "Hey, you and your little group must be those newbies we've heard about."

Azula felt relieved that she didn't recognise her as Princess Azula of the fire nation, but then started feeling a bit uncomfortable when Karmel came up to her and then even more so when she answered with "I guess so" and Karmel put her arm around Azula's back.

"Look, you're making a big mistake by being here, so we'll take you and your group back to the party and clear up whatever mess happend." When Karmel finshed her sentence, she started walking while trying to get Azula to follow her by pulling her with her arm which was still wrapped around Azula's back. But Azula pulled herself out of Karmel's grip.

"Thanks for the offer, but me and my group are fine staying here."

Azula then felt someone pulling her foward and turned to see Trish grasping her arm and walking her back to Karmel. "Oh don't be stupid, this is the last place anyone would wanna be... well except for the losers of Ember Island over there" she said while gesturing to the 3 boys and 1 girl.

"She gave you her answer and it's No, now get your mits off her before I break em off" Nikki said as she came up to them with calm anger on her face. Karmel and Trish simply looked at her smugly. Karmel then spoke "Yeah, like you'd resort to animal behaviour."

"Oh wait you would, explains why you don't have real parents." Trish said, supporting Karmel's hidden statement that wasn't so hidden. Zuko was about to ignite his fists and go forward, but was stopped by Tegs. Ty lee, not wanting to look like she was staring at the scene infront of her, looked about and realized that Pekkala was missing. She quietly tapped Balto's arm. He turned to her and she asked in a hushed voice "Where'd Pekkala go?"

Balto gave a grin as he nudged his head left,as if to point in that direction. Ty lee looked to her left and could slightly make out a small dark figure with white rosettes slinking away into the darkness. Then, the rosettes disappeared, but the acrobat could make out a dark figure in the shadows rising from the sand and into the sky. Her guess was that Pekkala has turned into something that could fly. Something big. She turned back to Balto, who still had a grin on his face then nudged his head towards the girls, who seemed to be having an angry stare off. She watched as Nikki's face became as emotionless as Mai's and she finally spoke "You're right, I shouldn't resort to animal behaviour."

Hearing this made Karmel and Trish smile with pride. but shocked Azula. She wondered why Nikki would agree with what the 2 girls said for once as she seemed to be against everything they said and did completely. Azula got her answer when Nikki's emotionless face turned into a devilish grin "Animal behaviour is, after all, best left to animals."

Before anyone could understand what she meant, a giant shadowy figure fell from the sky and landed between Nikki and the 2 girls. Azula took a step back and in less than a second, the shadowy figure caught blue flames as a screechy roar came from it, causing Karmel and Trish to scream in fear. As everyone looked, they saw what looked like a black griffin in the blue flames. As it roared at Karmel and Trish, the strength of the roar forced the girls to fall on to their backs.

* * *

 **One other thing I forgot to mention in Chapter 10; in the image of Balto, Abner, Nikki and Tegs (the order they're shown in the image), Balto appears as the shortest, but he's supposed to be around the same height as Abner and Tegs.**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

"Good girl Pekkala" Nikki said to the black griffin as she patted the back of its neck when the flames went out. As Karmel and Trish got up in anger, Nikki then turned to them with a stern look on her face and Pekkala did the same by narrowing her eyes and raising her wings, as if preparing for battle. "Leave. Now." The girls then left, clearly frustrated. As soon as they were gone, the boys and their daemons joined in with a now laughing Nikki and Pekkala. Azula walked up to Nikki with a grin on her face.

"That was impressive... what daemon form is Pekkala in now?"

Nikki looked at Azula with a smile "Hmph. Good to know you catch on. She's in phoenix griffin form."

Azula's grin disappeared and was replaced by a curious head-tilted look "I thought phoenix griffins were mythological."

Pekkala then stared at Azula with a dull expression while still in phoenix griffin form "Yeah, you also thought magic wasn't real until a few moments ago."

"Fair enough, does this happen all the time?" Azula asked she and Mai headed back to their original seats by the fire. Nikki and Zuko walked back to the fire along with everyone else, but chose to remain standing up. Pekkala flew upwards and changed into a black bird the same size as a messenger hawk and landed on Nikki's right shoulder. Azula guessed that Pekkala was now a phoenix bird. Ty lee, Abner, Tegs and Balto sat on the sand around the fire along with Iorek, Pan and Jahar, who went back into their kanine forms.

"YEAH and they end up running away every time, never gets old!" Balto exclaimed with joy as he sat down.

"I have to admit, that was funny!" Ty lee added. "But who exactly were they?"

Nikki answered her question "They were Karmel and Trish. 2 of the 6 most annoying girls known on Ember Island and unfortunately for Balto, all 6 of them are his cousins."

"YOU HAVE 6 COUSINS?!" Ty lee said with a shocked look on her face to Balto's plain-looking face that began to look downwards as he spoke in a low, dark voice.

"Yeah and I completely hate every one of them. It's like Nikki said; they're so annoying and even more so when you have to grow up living with them and all their habits for 16 years."

"Well, at least you clearly stand out from them; being a boy." Ty lee said while looking downwards herself. Nikki saw this and looked towards Ty lee with gentle eyes "Not to sound like a know-it-all, but it seems to me like you're trying to imply that you know what Balto went through in his childhood." Balto looked upwards to Ty lee after hearing this and like a flock of pigsheep, everyone else turned to face her as well.

"In a way, I kinda do; I grew up with 6 sisters who look exactly like me and... they even have names simillar to mine."

Nikki looked as if there was a foul stench in the air, then she spoke "Okay forgive how I say what but WHAT?!"

Ty lee couldn't help laugh quietly to Nikki's reaction before continuing. "Yeah, that's why I ran away from home and joined a circus; so I wouldn't have to spend the rest of my life as part of a matched set."

"Guess that explains why you need 10 boyfriends at once too" came Mai's voice.

Hearing this made Ty lee tense up from her sad state "I'm sorry, what?!"

"Attention issues? You couldn't get enough attention when you were a kid so, you're trying to make up for it now."

Ty lee decided to get the attention of her and then remembered Mai's childhood being completely contrasting to hers "Well, what's your excuse Mai? You were an only child for 13 years. But even with **all** that attention, your aura is this dingy, pasty, grey...!"

"I don't believe in auras" came Mai's response while looking away from her with her arms crossed, as if Ty lee wasn't even insulting her.

"Yeah" came Zuko's voice "You don't believe in anything."

"Oh well, I'm sorry I can't be as high-strung and crazy like the rest of you."

Zuko walked up to her as he continued "I'm sorry too! I wish you **would** be high-strung and crazy for once, instead of keeping all your feelings bottled up inside! She just called your aura dingy! Are you gonna take that?!"

"What do you want from me?" Mai asked as she lay her back down on the rock she was sat on and stared at the clouds in the sky that were blocking the stars. "You want a teary confession about how hard my childhood was? Well, it wasn't. I was a rich, only child who got anything I wanted... as long as I behaved... and sat still... and didn't speak unless spoken to. My mother said I had to keep out of trouble. We had my dad's political career to think about."

Azula decided to sum it up "Well that's it then. You had a controlling mother who had certain expectations and if you strayed from them, you were shut down. That's why you're afraid to care about anything; and why you can't express yourself."

After Azula finished her summary of her childhood, Mai sat up straight again "You want me to express myself? LEAVE ME ALONE!" Her sudden outburst shocked everyone, although most kept their shock hidden other than Ty lee, Nikki and Zuko, who then walked up to her with a small smile "I like it when you express yourself." But as he reached out his hand to her, she pushed it away "Don't touch me, I'm still mad at you!"

His smile went away "My life hasn't been that easy either Mai."

"Whatever! That doesn't excuse the way you've been acting!"

Nikki decided to, in her mind, stop the madness "Okay, while we try talking about someone elses' childhood, you two try and cool off, anyone want to open up?"

Tegs intervened as per Nikki's suggestion before Zuko and Mai were about to explode "My childhood is simillar to yours" he said while looking at Mai who was looking downwards with her arms crossed like a young child about to complain "except I've been an only child all my life. Also, it's not easy bonding with parents who are away most of the time and leave you in the care of their friends."

No one seemed as moved by Tegs' childhood, so Nikki decided to tell hers "Okay, you want a depressing childhood story, well here's mine..."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

"I spent the first 10 years of my life kept inside my house, mainly my bedroom, by my parents who were embarrassed of having a non-bender daughter with an unknown incurable illness that was said to kill her at a young age."

After hearing this, Azula, Zuko, Mai and Ty lee were stunned and secretly shocked on the inside at this chidhood story. They thought they had had bad experiences in their youth, but this was even more unimaginable than theirs. Azula then remembered that Nikki said " unknown incurable illness" and felt to ask her about that (for her and her group's health concerns) "Unknown incurable illness?"

Nikki then came inbetween Azula and Ty lee with her back facing them. She then took off her purple cloak, revealing her to be wearing a long-sleeved black top with red covering her chest and upper-back area as well as her also wearing a yellow scarf-like belt. She lifted the bottom part of the back of her top slightly to reveal a large purple mark that looked like a big bruise. Nikki then said "Don't worry, it's not contagious, but I've basically had that mark since I was born and the Ember Island healers said that they had never seen anything like it, so they predicted that I would die from it at a young age... except I didn't... and I know I'm not going to."

Azula stared at it and then felt an unknown need to touch the mark, but as she reached her hand out to Nikki's back, Abner got up and lightly grabbed her wrist to stop her "Don't touch it;... except by the outlines of it."

"How come?" Azula asked as she figured that there was a more deeper reason other than a brother looking out for his sister as well as her trying to touch Nikki's mark resulted with Abner grabbing _**her**_ wrist and preventing her from touching it. " _At least he didn't grab my wrist and yank it hard like Chan did."_

"One reason is because it's sensitive to being touched; the main reason is that Nikki bites." Abner answered as he let go of her wrist, his first reason sounding serious while his "main" reason sounded more like a sarcastic joke. Before Azula could ask Abner what he meant by "Nikki bites", Nikki sighed loudly "It was _**ONE time**_ I bit you and for the record, I warned you, Balto and Tegs that it was sensitive and you chose to touch it while I was sleeping, so I say I've got more than a right to bite someone that wakes me up from a deep sleep, even if that someone is you!"

"You bit your brother?" Zuko asked with disbelief as Azula heeded Abner's words and gently placed her 3 middle fingers that were on her right hand on to the outlines of the large purple mark on Nikki's back, to which Nikki slightly flinched at the touch of Azula's fingers but then relaxed after a few moments of getting use to it.

Tegs laughed for a brief moment "He still has the bite marks as proof."

"You may as well show them, now that we're all interested!" Balto exclaimed as Abner looked as if he were about to blush. He gave in to his friend's and sister's joke with a happy sigh and held out the inside of his left hand and on the palm part that connected to his thumb was a mildly visible mark that was clearly made by human teeth biting down on Abner's hand. However, it appeared too small to be from Nikki's mouth.

"When exactly did you bite him?" Ty lee asked.

"7 years ago, when I was 7." Nikki answered and after that, Azula pulled her hand away from the mark on Nikki's back after running her fingertips gently on it, although she didn't stop staring at the mark until Nikki brought down the bottom of her top.

"How on earth has that lasted for 7 years?!"

"Maybe it's magic." came Mai's voice with a small shy smile on her face. This made Azula, Ty lee and Zuko stare at her with surprised eyes while Nikki smiled widely "Hmm, good to know you're willing to risk getting in trouble with your parents by smiling and making small jokes in fromt of strangers that may betray your trust", she said while Mai and Abner both silently exhaled through their noses as if trying to respond with a sarcastic sign that means "hysterical" to Nikki's joke before she continued "but, we're actually not that certain ourselves, it's possible I was **_born_** as a witch, but that would mean that our parents were magic too, and I think me and Abner would've noticied our parents doing magic tricks."

"Another fair point" Azula said, recalling when she said the same thing to Pekkala, who was apart of Nikki.

After moments of awkward silence, Tegs spoke up "Maybe, we should stop talking about our pasts and try focusing on the present."

"A spectacular idea, Tegsy! Anyone got any suggestions on what to do to decrease our boredom rates?" came Nikki's superior sounding voice.

Azula had a puzzling look on her face, and then an idea from earlier hit her "We're only going to be here for a week, so we should do things that make our time together memorable."

"That sounds like a good idea!" said Ty lee, supporting her friend and reminding Azula of her authority identity. "But what could we do?"

Azula then stood up from where she was sat "You know what would make this trip _**really**_ memorable...?" she said calmly before smirking at her idea...

* * *

 **Well, here's chapter 13! Sorry it took so long, but it's hard to rewrite this scene so that it will fit with my story. The reason Zuko and Azula didn't voice out their childhood stories is because they're still trying to see how people would treat them if they didn't know who they were (or rather Azula is and Zuko's following her) and it would be hard to include their stories and actions with others who don't know them personally watching. Don't worry, my OC's childhoods may be bad, (especially Nikki's) but they're going to be explained further. Maybe not in this story, (I'm not entirely certain yet) but they will be explained. Also, the other reason why I didn't update sooner is because ther's a problem with my internet connection. Hope you liked this chapter. Stay tuned for chapter 14!**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

After the 4 newbies had left the party and after his brief time down in the basement, Chan felt relieved and happy about the fate that was to bestow them along with troublemaker Nikki and her loser brothers. But when there was a rather loud knock at his door, he feared that they had come back for revenge. His worries went away however when opening the door revealed Karmel and Trish. He announced their presence to his guests and Ruon-jian instantly asked them out-loud about the prank they said they were going to pull on the Ember Island losers. They obviously chose to lie with a story that they had thought of on their way to the party by saying that they surprised and scared them **_so_** badly, that the boys screamed like girls and Nikki jumped and fell into the shallow part of the sea and continued to scream and flop about like a baby elephant koi. This caused everyone to laugh until they went back to focusing on their own stories in their small groups. The thought of Nikki, Abner, Tegs, Balto and the 4 newbies must have slipped from Chan's mind completely because when there came a simple knock at the door and he went to open it, the last thing he expected to see was the 4 newbies; Mai had a stern look on her face, as did Ty lee as well as both her hands were in fists, Zuko faced the non-bending duo with his arms crossed so that the non-scarred part of his face was facing Chan while Azula put on the best evil smile she could. Chan was slightly shocked and confused, but seemed unthreatened... at least until Azula spoke in her calm, regal voice "We've got some bad news Chan..."

Zuko turned his head to face Chan with anger in order to do the honours of giving him the bad news "Party's over."

Before Chan could comprehend the situation he was in or warn anyone about the 4 newbies, Azula stepped back to allow Zuko to march up to Chan and shove him back inside so hard that he went flying into and almost smashed the wall behind him. Everyone stopped talking and looked to Chan as he lay there for a few moments and then got up. They then turned to the doorway and began to stare, cower and tremble quietly in fear as the 4 teens walked in to cause mayhem. Zuko grabbed a small vase and threw it as hard as he could to the floor, causing it to shatter instantly. Everyone then started screaming and running away from them into other rooms of the house in an attempt to escape out the windows since the door appeared blocked. Chan watched in horror as he saw Zuko, who broke the food-covered table in half with one well-aimed leg swing downwards, Mai, who threw a double-bladed disc knife along a row of 5 wall-hanging taperstrys, resulting in a perfect clean cut and the bottom quarter of them falling to the ground and Ty lee, who had found her way on to the ceiling and began swinging from the chanderliers, causing them to fall as she left them. Seeing what had happened to his house and realising what his father would do to him when he came home, he broke down crying loudly with tears pouring from his eyes and bogeys running from his nostrils. All the while, Azula just stood and watched all that had happened with her arms crossed and a superior smile simillar to Nikki's. _"Pathetic."_

* * *

Chan's party guests thought that the teens were distracted enough with their homwrecking, so some escaped through the windows while some risked sprinting for the door. Azula heard their escape attempts and looked over her shoulder to see them outside, still with a smirk on her face. _"Bad idea..."_

As if her thoughts were on cue, from the bushes near the door sprang out a fierce, giant white reptile-like creature with large wings, talons and bottom-row teeth that were outside its mouth. Then, as it roared, it somehow set itself on fire and scared the already fear-filled teens; simillar to the teens who escaped out the windows, except they were scared off by a grey reptile-like creature with wings and yellow spikes on its head and tail and a maroon winged reptile-like creature with small teeth that seemed to come out from its upper and lower gums. They then breathed out fire from their mouths (revealing them to be dragons) at the teens and scared them off the cliffsides, which had large secret slides that were sparkling and led to the sea, causing everyone to get wet, including Karmel, Trish and Ruon-jian, who screamed and flopped about in the water more than anyone else. As Azula, Zuko, Mai and Ty lee came out of Chan's now-wrecked house, on the roof were Nikki, Abner, Tegs and Balto, who were laughing really hard when they came down using firebending; Nikki came down on Pekkala, who was in phoenix griffin form. The 3 dragons, who in turn were Iorek, Pan and Jahar, resorted to their big cat forms. Pekkala did the same after she set herself on fire and flapped her wings to create a big ball of fire that went towards Chan's house, setting it ablaze. Luckily, no one was in as Chan got out through the back entrance; still sobbing hysterically. The eight friends gathered with smiles on their faces and linking arms with each other and followed the daemons back to the Lo and Li's house. From left to right; Abner, Azula, Nikki, Tegs, Balto, Ty lee, Mai and Zuko.

* * *

 _Flashback:_

 _Azula then stood up from where she was sat "You know what would make this trip **really** memorable...?" she said calmly before smirking at her idea..._

 _"Something tells me that whatever you're about to say will be **incredibly diabolical**." came Nikki's voice filled with amusement._

 _Azula smirked and explained her idea to the group "Chan said that his father has no idea that he's throwing that party; that means there's no reason for his home to be a complete mess for when he returns."_

 _"What exactly are you suggesting?" Zuko asked his sister wth weariness in his voice and curiousity in his face, though he pretty much had a hunch of what Azula's answer was going to be._

 _"That we go back to the party and **destroy it**." That was enough to shock everyone. Nikki then spoke up, pointing her staff towards Azula, as if trying to stop her from heading to the party. " **OH NO!** There is absolutely **NO WAY** we are going to let any of you go and wreck that party!" Nikki's reaction to Azula plan shocked everyone even more, especially Azula. Nikki's face then went from stern to playful and she brought her staff back towards herself and planted the bottom of it on the ground while still holding it "...Unless you get us front row seats." Everyone then smiled and Azula felt relieved. Azula then asked "Why front row seats? Don't you wanna help?"_

 _"I would, but I cause trouble like that all the time... aaaand ... Abner's prohibited me from doing any more destruction for the time being." Nikki said looking bashfully at the sand._

 _"What did you do that got you punished?" Mai asked in her dull, sarcastic voice as they set off to Chan's house._

 _"Yeah, lets just say it involved a "peaceful protest" that was aimed at the "critically acclaimed" Ember Island players."_

 _"You concocted a potion that caused their props to burn to ash, how is that in any way "peaceful"?!" came her brother._

 _"Well, I didn't throw the potion at the actors, did I?!"_

* * *

 _When they reached Chan's house, they were about to walk in until Nikki told them to stop. She had her eyes shut tight and her grasp on her staff (that was planted on the ground) was equally tight. When she opened her eyes, they were full of pure rage. She then motioned everyone to gather round and spoke in a calm voice simillar to Azula's._

 _"Change of plans, we need to improvise your plan on **you** guys wrecking the party..." she said referring to Azula's group "...;we're joining in too." she said, referring to her, her brother and his 2 best friends._

 _"Aaaaand, why would we do that?" asked Abner._

 _"Karmel and Trish are inside and have apparantly told everyone that they pulled off their prank on us so well that you 3 screamed like **girls** while I fell into the ocean and screamed and flopped about like a baby elephant koi."_

 _Abner had the same expression on his face that Nikki had when Ty lee told the group of 8 about how her 6 identical sisters all had names that were simillar to hers. He then spoke in a low, dark voice " **Those witches are. Going. Down**."_

 _Nikki had her thinking face on for a moment while facing the house, then looked around the edges of the land the house was on. Suddenly, a thought came into her head, which then became an idea, which then became a genius plan "You know? It **is** a good story that they've told, but if you take out the parts with us and **replace them** with everyone who is currently in that house, it would an even better story."_

 _"It would also be a **true** story." added Azula "...with some slight encouragement from us."_

 _"Now you're talking... all you guys need to do is get everyone outside and we'll handle the rest of the story." Nikki added._

 _"How are you gonna get about 30 teenagers into the ocean from here, by throwing them in?" asked Mai sarcastically._

 _" **No** ; although that method is **so** much better than what I have in mind. All it will take is this..." she said spreading her arms apart, releasing sparks from her hand that went in 3 directions off the ground and into the sides of the cliff the house was on, to which they formed 3 giant wide slides leading to the sea. "...and this." Nikki finished by gesturing to Iorek, Pan and Jahar, who transformed into giant reptile-like creatures with large wings. This caused the 4 teens, mainly Zuko and Azula to stare. Zuko then asked "Are they supposed to be dragons?"_

 _Nikki answered his question "You bet. Look, I'm sure you wanna know more, but we're burning moonlight and they'll be plenty of hours in the day to tell you guys more tomorrow, I promise."_

* * *

As they finally reached Lo and Li's house, Nikki halted to stop and stare " **That** is what you're staying in for a whole week?"

"Apparently so." Mai answered as she walked in, who was then followed by Ty lee after she gave Balto and Jahar (still in caracal form) a big hug to which they hugged back as equally as she did. Zuko and Azula were about to go in too, but Nikki came up to them "Hey before you 2 go in, mind if I talk to you both about something?"

Azula answered with "Sure" while Zuko nodded along with his sister's answer. As she lead them to the back of the hut-like house, Pekkala changed from jaguar to phoenix bird and flew high into the night sky while Abner called out to his sister "Nikki, don't be too long."

"Got it." Nikki said while raising her hand as if saying "Bye" and with that, Abner and Iorek finally headed back to their house along with Tegs, Balto, Pan and Jahar. When Nikki, Azula and Zuko were finally at the back of the house, Nikki asked them something they never expected her or anyone else to ask "Okay, not to freak you out or anything, but I gotta know something,... were you at any point during the night going to tell us that you're Fire Lord Ozai's children?" This shocked Zuko and Azula as they both widened their eyes at this question and were completely speechless. Nikki then continued with her head tilted slightly to the right "It's Zuko and Azula, right?"

"How exactly do you know who we are?! We haven't told anyone that!" Azula asked with anger, shock and surprise in her tone of voice.

"Well one reason is that you just confirmed it" Nikki answered with slight smugness in her tone of voice, as she wasn't wrong "Another is that it's kinda easy to recognise Prince Zuko" Hearing this softened Zuko's face and Nikki saw the hurt in his eyes that were now avoiding her "Sorry, it... just is" she said quietly.

"It's okay" Zuko said in a simillar quiet voice as he knew how she recognised him and they didn't have to say it outloud.

"And a final reason is that as far as me and my staff know, there is only **one** firebender with **permanent** blue flames" she said looking towards Azula. Nikki then continued "Look, I get why you never said who you were; you wanted to know what people would think of you if they didn't know what your titles are in the capital."

"How did you know that?" Azula asked.

"You didn't say who you were to Chan and Ruon-jian from earlier on the beach and when Karmel and Trish showed up, you still didn't say who you were."

"Do your brother and your friends know as well?" Zuko asked.

"No, apparently, I'm the only person on Ember Island who knows who you two are and I didn't even go to school to learn about the fire nation's history or its royal family members. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone; your identities are safe with me, but I am expecting you, at some point during your stay, to tell Abner, Tegs and Balto." And with that, the trio headed back to the front of Lo and Li's home where Pekkala was waiting in horse form. She came to up them "Nikki something's wrong, I flew over where they usually patrol but there aren't any footprints other than ours from earlier. They haven't been out tonight at all."

"That's strange."

Azula and Zuko looked at each other with confusion before Zuko asked "Who didn't patrol?"

"The CS."

Azula then remembered that CS was brought up earlier, but before Nikki could tell them what she meant, Karmel and Trish showed up in a failed prank attempt, so as Nikki mounted Pekkala, Azula decided she couldn't wait for tomorrow and asked "What do you mean by "CS"? You never said."

Nikki hesitated before giving an answer "It stands for "Child Snatchers... look I know it's confusing and a lot to take in, but there's more time to discuss it tomorrow... one more thing too, me and the boys get up really early to go on to the beach, so sorry if we wake you up."

Before Nikki and Pekkala left, Zuko had one more question on his mind "You said that as far as you and your staff know, there is only **one** firebender with **permanent** blue flames; what did you mean by **permanent?"**

"Abner can produce blue flames too, but he can only do so when he's incredibly angry."

And with that Pekkala galloped off with Nikki on her back. Zuko and Azula watched and then went inside and into their beds. Ty lee and Mai seemed fast asleep, so Azula went on the bottom of the bunk bed that Ty lee was on as quietly as she could. Zuko was about to get into his bed when he heard an unforgettable dull voice from below "Hey."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

Zuko looked down to see Mai looking at him, her eyes still as dull as ever, but her expression wasn't entirely emotionless. It seemed to have some regret and sadness in it, so he gave her the same response she gave him "Hey."

She then got up out of her bed and looked at Zuko "What did Nikki want?"

Zuko was surprised at this question as he thought she was going to talk about their break-up, but he didn't show signs of surprise and answered her question "Nikki somehow knows who me and Azula are."

"How did she know, did you tell her?" Mai asked with interest in her voice.

"No, she figured it out on her own, her brother and her friends don't know though, she's hoping we'll tell them at some point."

"Oh." was all Mai said while looking down at her feet, until she then looked back at Zuko after a few awkward moments of silently looking at the ground, now with full regret and sadness on her face "I'm sorry about what happened at the party earlier, as well as the entire time we've been on Ember Island, I know I haven't exactly been the perfect girlfriend by not responding to you trying to make things between us more boyfriend-grilfriend-like."

This time, Zuko showed that he was surprised by widening his eyes, simillar to how when Nikki revealed that she knew who he and Azula were. Apart from that, this was the last thing he ever expected to happen; Mai showing small amounts of emotion and actually meaning her apology. Zuko then realised that she wasn't entirely guilty for how their relationship turned out tonight "I'm sorry too, my anger issues didn't exactly help out either." He then turned to go up to his bed, but he felt Mai's hand on his shoulder, that stopped him and turned him back around to face her.

"I know one thing I care about... I care about you" she said with a small smile on her face. After hearing this, Zuko smiled a small smile himself and then, they both leaned in and kissed, reinstating their relationship as boyfriend and grilfriend. Their kiss would've gone on for longer if they weren't interupted by a slow clapping come from the bottom of the other bunk bed. They turned in anger to see Azula clapping with a devious smile on her face "Well, good to know you two lovebirds have finally made up, now go to bed, I already had to put up with your performances about your childhood."

"I guess you wouldn't understand that, would you Azula" Zuko said while putting a protective hand on Mai's shoulder, holding her close as she lightlly hugged him while looking at Azula the same way Zuko was "Because you're just _so perfect_."

Deep down, Azula thought that not to be entirely true as she had her issues from childhood, mainly regarding her mother, but she acted like they didn't mean anything "Well yes, I guess you're right, I don't have sob stories like all of you, I could start complaining how our mom liked you more than me Zuzu, but I don't really care." And with that, she turned around and went back to sleep. Zuko and Mai shared one final kiss before going into their beds.

Despite wanting to fall asleep, Azula couldn't find herself to do so as her mind was plagued by one thought and even though her father had once told her that trust is for fools and that fear is the only reliable way to maintain control of her emotions and others, she wanted to share this one thought she believed to be true _"My own mother... thought I was a_ _ **monster**_ _."_

* * *

Meanwhile at Abner and Nikki's house, the boys and their daemons are waiting for Nikki and Pekkala to return. Abner is outside looking out for her along with Iorek, who is sitting down on the sand in dog form. Balto comes up to him with Jahar in caracal form "Don't worry Abner, Nikki will be back soon."

Abner sighed in frustration "I know, I just worry about her."

"You **always** worry about her. She's not exactly a helpless kid anymore. And even if she does run into the CS, she has her staff and Pekkala to protect her as well as her instincts that'll tell her what to do in order to get away."

"Maybe so, but she's still my sister and it seems like my job to look out for her, especially since our parents didn't. Not to mention the incident that would've happened a few weeks ago if I didn't protect Nikki." Abner said while looking in the direction that Nikki should be coming in when she and Pekkala arrive.

Balto looked down and then to Abner's left arm that was covered by a long fire nation red sleeve. He decided, after saying "Fair point" to Abner, to go inside, as he knew as well as Tegs that nothing would convince Abner to come and wait for Nikki inside the house. Finally, after waiting a few minutes longer, he saw Nikki coming towards the house, riding on Pekkala. After Nikki got off her back, Pekkala changed into a jaguar cub and ran inside the house along with Iorek, while Nikki and Abner remained outside.

"Please tell me you've not been waiting out here all this time for me to arrive." Nikki said with an annoyed tone.

"Alright, I haven't been waiting out here all this time for you to arrive." Abner simply stated with a straight face before smiling cheekily at Nikki, who couldn't resist sighing with a smile "You do realise your overprotectiveness is becoming incredibly annoying and intolerable."

Abner put a straight face back on "Fine, if you're old enough to come in without a lookout needed, then you're old enough to walk to the house rather than being carried there from now on."

Nikki stared at Abner with narrow eyes "I both love and _**loathe**_ the fact that you're incredibly persuasive." Abner smiled at his sister admitting defeat before heeding her command to pick her up, which she gave by lifting her arms up. As he walked to the house with Nikki in his arms he asked her "Did you run into the CS?"

"Actually, Pekkala told me that they hadn't been around their usual patrol area tonight."

Abner looked at her with concerned confusion "That's strange, any theories why they weren't on patrol tonight?"

Nikki then smiled "Maybe they've finally accepted that they're never gonna catch us."

"If only" Abner said as he and Nikki walked inside.

* * *

Back at Chan's now burning house, he was still sobbing hysterically. He saw up the path, Ruon jian, Karmel and Trish who were all soaking wet. Also with them were 2 other girls. One had short light brown hair and was wearing a white top with long grey sleeves and a big pink ballerina skirt, while the other girl had orangy-brown hair that was all bushy and looked like a fluffy spidopine and wearing a red dress along with a matching pair of red shoes and a red cloak. Chan immedialey stopped sobbing and greeted them "Hey, I take it that Anyanka and Halfrek are here to help?"

* * *

 **Heeeeeeey! So that's chapter 15. Also, for those who watch buffy the vampire slayer, you'll know what anyanka and halfrek are in this fanfiction.**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

* * *

 **"All magic comes with a price"-Rumpelstiltskin, Once Upon a Time**

* * *

It was early in the morning and Azula woke up to the faint sound of laughter and water splashing coming from the beach. She then remembered that before Nikki left last night, she told her and Zuko that she, Abner, Tegs and Balto get up early to go on the beach. Though she never said why. It didn't just seem to wake Azula up; Zuko, Mai and Ty lee were starting to awaken to the laughter from outside.

"Who's up at this time?" asked Ty lee after yawning.

Azula replied while lying on her back and stretching her arms and legs "That would be the 4 teens we met last night and the same 4 teens who helped us burn down Chan's house, before Nikki left, she told me and Zuko that they go to the beach very early in the morning."

"And why were we not warned about this last night?" Mai asked in a grumpy voice, and not just because she was tired.

"Well I would have done if Ty lee wasn't already asleep and you and Zuko weren't making up after breaking up a few hours ago."

This news seemed to wake Ty lee up immediately as she asked in her cheerful voice "You two got back together last night?!"

Zuko and Mai both groaned from tiredness and annoyance before Zuko answered "Yes, we got back together, now either go back to sleep or be quiet!" After finishing his sentence, he went under the covers of his bed in attempt to block out any sound.

"I thought firebenders rose with the sun." Ty lee said at the irony of Zuko, a firebender, doing the opposite of rising.

"Well, I'm not a firebender, nor am I any kind of bender, which means I don't need to be awake at this time... in fact, neither do you Ty lee." Mai replied in her still tired and grumpy voice before copying Zuko and going under her covers.

"You do know there is a cure for your sleepiness if you're interested." came a familliar voice from the window that caused Azula and Ty lee to jump slightly while Mai and Zuko got out from under their covers to see who was at the window. When they all looked, they saw a black phoenix bird that they all instantly recognised. This seemed to wake Ty lee up even more "PEKKALA!"

"Shush! Do you want to wake up Lo and Li?!" Azula said in a hushed voice while looking above her to Ty lee.

"Sorry." Ty lee said in a hushed voice before looking back to Pekkala with a smile "How did you know we would be up at this time?"

"Nikki's instincts told her that you would be and apparantly, they're never wrong."

Azula then spoke to the black phoenix "What's this cure for our tiredness then Pekkala?"

"If I told you, you'd never agree to it. Don't worry, it's not a magic cure, but it does involve those who want it to get out of bed regardless of how tired they feel, getting into their beachwear and joining us on the beach."

After some consideration, Azula answered for the group "Very well then, we'll _**all come**_."

At this, Zuko and Mai both groaned while Ty lee smiled widely along with Azula's current smile.

"See you there then." Pekkala said before flying off.

"And why exactly are we all going?!" Zuko asked while staring at his sister with narrow tired eyes.

"Because you and your girlfriend need it more than anyone of us right now Zuzu, because Ty lee and I are going to make certain the two of you get to the beach and because Ty lee's right; Firebenders do indeed rise with the sun."

Realising that they weren't going to win, Zuko and Mai reluctantly got out of their beds and followed Azula and Ty lee to the wardrobe and cupboards to get changed into their beachwear as well as pack some towels and other necessities into a bag before going out to the beach. Before they left, Azula wrote a note for Lo and Li, explaining where they were. She wrote:

 **Lo and Li,**

 **We've gone down to the beach as none of us could sleep in on a day like this and we packed some breakfast, so don't bother making us some. We'll be back later on.**

 **Azula**

* * *

The 4 of them then headed down to the beach. They saw in the sea, Nikki and the boys running about in the water, laughing and attempting to splash each other, while their daemons were running about in the water in their horse forms. When Nikki looked up and saw them coming towards them, she ran over to them and stopped with her staff still in her hand "Heeeey, good to see you're interested in my sleepiness cure!"

"What exactly is this cure?" Mai asked with suspicion.

"Ice. Cold. Seawater" she said with a smirk on her face that reminded Zuko of Azula. Hearing this put shock into the 4 teens and as the boys watched in the sea, Nikki walked behind the 4 teens waving her staff about as the 4 newbies watched her, unaware of the danger that was above their heads. Unbeknownst to them, Nikki was conjuring a large amount of water from the sea above their heads. Mai spoke as Nikki walked behind them "I for one am not going into the ice, cold seawater.

"Who said you had to go _**into**_ the sea?"

Before any of them could comprehend her question, they all screamed after Nikki brought her staff down to the sand twice, which released the water that was above their heads.

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT, THE WATER'S FREEZING!" Zuko shouted, almost as if steam was coming from his head, though Nikki just smiled as if she didn't hear him.

"I told you you'd never agree if you knew what it involved! Plus, you have to admit the cure did work." As much as Zuko didn't want to accept that, Nikki was right, so he calmed down slightly. Nikki then said "Also, I can easily dry the 4 of you off, hold still." Nikki waved her staff again and as she did, the water from the 4 teens rose and went back into the ocean in a kind of stream. Azula could swear it was almost as if Nikki was waterbending.

"I think we would've preferred a magic cure." Ty lee said while shaking from the cold of the water while Zuko and Mai set up their towel and umbrella and Azula went up to the towel on the sand that Nikki set up for her. Nikki sat down on the sand next to Azula, placing her staff down, Abner and Tegs sat down on the sand near Ty lee while facing the sea while Pekkala, Iorek, Pan and Jahar continued to run about in the water, neighing with happiness.

"Trust me, you wouldn't." Balto said coming up to her and putting a towel over her shoulders, to which Ty lee smiled even wider when he hugged her to help her get warm and she nuzzled into his neck.

"What makes you an expert on that?" Azula asked, completely ignoring what Balto and Ty lee were doing.

Nikki saw Balto was "busy", so she answered for him "If there is one thing we've learned about magic in our experiences, it's that it always comes with a price. True that there are some potions that can make you feel wide awake, but they may come with some side effects worse than sleepiness. The only price you 4 had to pay for my _**non-**_ magic cure.. was a moment of humility."

Azula couldn't help but smile at this truth. She looked behind her shoulder as she didn't want anyone to see her smile, but when she did, she saw a group of 6 in the distance coming towards them, causing her to tense up and turn to Nikki with a serious look on her face "I thought no one else got up this early."

Nikki looked confused "They don't." She then looked behind her shoulder to see what was going on. Nikki's face then became as serious as Azula and she instantly grabbed her staff and stood up. Everyone else looked to see what was causing the commotion and from the distance, the 4 newbies recognised Chan, Ruon-jian, Karmel and Trish but not the 2 other girls who were with them. But Nikki, Abner, Tegs and Balto knew them too well; as did their daemons.

Ty lee asked in a mildly worried voice "What do you suppose they want?"

This time, Balto did answer in a dark voice when he let go Ty lee and got infront of her, while Balto changed into his wolfdog form and walked up to Balto, growling at the group of six "When Halfrek and Anyanka are involved,... **me."**

* * *

 **Phew! Finally done chapter 16. Hope you enjoyed it, sorry if there are any spelling errors, also sorry for taking so long and also hoped you liked the cliffhanger of this chapter.**

 **Side note: I decided to put in that line from once upon a time as it isn't wrong. Also, that rule about magic plays an important part later on in the story.**


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

As the group of 6 came closer, Pekkala trotted out from the water and went next to Nikki while changing into her phoenix griffin form. Pan and Iorek changed into their kanine forms and went up to Abner and Tegs, who were standing up like Zuko, Mai and Azula, all of whom had stern looks on their faces. When they were close enough, Karmel glanced at everyone and then spoke while the 2 unknown girls approached Balto "Well, looks like the _**loser**_ in the 4 of you has spreaded into the newbies."

" _ **We're**_ the losers?" Nikki said in her superior-sounding voice "Because we're not the ones who got completely soaked last night." This remark got smiles from Nikki's friends, including the newbies, but glares from her enemies as well as a loud exhale of anger from Karmel's nose.

The 2 unknown girls spoke the same word at the same time "Balto."

Balto looked to the shorter girl with the messy orange hair and then looked at the taller one with short light brown hair, while saying their names to them in a dark voice "Halfrek. Anyanka."

"You know why we're here?" Halfrek asked.

"Yes I do, but no... you're not getting them."

"Why not? We need them." Anyanka said in a louder voice, just below shouting.

"Actually, you just need one if what you're planning on doing is restoring Chan's house." The conversation between the 3 was clearly sparking confusion amongst the 4 newbies, so Azula decided to inervene "What aren't they getting?"

Balto answered without taking his glare off the 2 girls infront of him "Halfrek and Anyanka each have a pendant that allows them to grant wishes to others. However, they started abusing their power and long story short, I took away their pendants so they couldn't." After he finished, Trish appeared slightly surprised "You're honestly telling 4 people who you just met about stuff that could get them in serious trouble?"

"Apparantley so" Balto answered with a straight face.

"Will you just cough up their pendants already _**Bingo?"**_ Ruon-jian said with at first a cross look on his face, but then with a smirk as he said the last word of his sentence and he wasn't the only one smiling at the insult. But Balto, who still had his eyes on Halfrek and Anyanka, then spoke; turning his head to Ruon-jian as he spoke the last word of his sentence "My name's _**Balto."**_

Halfrek then spoke to Balto "Fine, we'll wait until the end of the day for you to reconsider." And with that, red smoke appeared from hers and Anyanka's feet and it rose to their heads, causing them to disappear when the smoke cleared up. The 4 newbies stared in bewonderment whlie Balto, Nikki, Abner, Tegs and their daemons stared with narrow eyes. As Karmel and Trish walked away, Karmel spoke with her back turned to the group of 8 "Oh, by the way Balto, we've got a message from your mother." Karmel then brought her head back so that her face was facing the sky and did a loud, exaggerated howl, as if trying to sound like a wolf. This caused Chan, Ruon-jian and Trish to laugh very hard for a few seconds, before they followed Karmel's example and howled and laughed as they walked away. At the start of this, both Balto's and Jahar's eyes widened and then went narrow. Jahar also started to get up from his sitting position and began to growl. But as they got further away, they both calmed down slightly and looked down at the ground in shame while everyone awkwardly stared at him and Jahar. Nikki then said "Er, people are probably gonna come on the beach any moment and we don't wanna be here when that happens... so... we should head back to our house before that happens." All but Balto and Jahar heeded Nikki's words and began gathering up their stuff and Zuko, Mai, Abner and Tegs headed to Abner and Nikki's house while Balto and Jahar remained as still as statues. Nikki looked at Balto and then went up to Ty lee, who had just put the towel from over her shoulders into the large pink bag.

"Hey, do you mind sticking with Balto? I think he's gonna slack behind us and I think you should stick by him." Nikki asked quietly as she took the bag and put it on Pekkala's (now horse) back.

Ty lee, when putting the towel in the bag, looked both shocked and sad. But after Nikki's question, she brightened up slightly, as if happy, though she kept her happiness hidden and asked with a confused face and tone "How come?"

"When we first met, the first thing you did was ask me if I was okay, and believe it or not, that is by far, the nicest thing any girl has ever said to me. I just think you might be able to help Balto out a bit."

"Okay, I'll stick by him." Ty lee answered and slowly walked up to Balto. When Nikki turned around, she saw in the distance, Abner and Tegs leading the way, Pan and Iorek running further ahead, Zuko and Mai walking together and Azula waiting for her about 20 feet away. When Nikki finally reached her, Azula walked with her and asked "What was all that about?"

Nikki answered hesitantly "Balto has a... complicated family history, which his cousins kinda insulted just then, so I asked Ty lee to stick with him, I think she can help him; they did bond rather quickly."

"Yeah, Ty lee usually bonds with lots of guys at the same time rather than just one." Azula said with a smile and while feeling something inside that she rarely felt; something that felt good like... truely bonding with someone. True Mai and Ty lee were her friends and had been so for many years, but Nikki was different. Azula felt a strong bond with someone she had just met and still didn't know why she felt it.

"I actually meant that it was strange for Balto, he usually doesn't bond that well with girls; or at least I've never seen him do so."

* * *

 **DA DA DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH, DA DA DA, DA DA DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! That was Chapter 17, hope you enjoyed it! For those who have seen the film Balto, that is who the character in this fanfic with the same name as the main character of the film was inspired by; as was the scene where Balto's cousins insult him as that is taken from a scene from the film. Sorry if that sentence confused you. Also, how's the fanfic so far? Feel free to review.**


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18:

Ty lee, Balto and Jahar were far behind the others now, as Balto and Jahar still hadn't moved. Ty lee, after hesitating a bit, finally talked to him "Hey!"

He turned his head to face her, still with his sad face on "Hey."

"You know, we should probably listen to Nikki, I mean, we wouldn't want a confrontation with anyone who arrives, would we?" she said with her voice sounding quite nervous and happy. But Balto just looked down at his feet again, as if she wasn't there. She then reached out her hand and lightly grabbed his wrist and when he looked at the soft hand on his wrist and then at Ty lee, she nudged her head in the direction of Abner and Nikki's house. Balto then, for a brief moment, gave Ty lee a big, yet sad, smile and they began walking to the house, with Ty lee still holding Balto's wrist. As Jahar walked 10 feet ahead of them, Ty lee continued to talk with Balto "So, we've now met 4 of your 6 cousins, what are the final 2 like?"

"I'm actually praying that you and your friends never meet them."

Ty lee's bright face went confused "How come?"

"My final 2 cousins, Darla and Drusilla, are probably the worst of all of them."

"What makes them the worst?"

Balto then stopped and grabbed Ty lee's hand (the one that was still on his wrist) in order to get her to stop walking "Ty lee, I'd rather not talk about it... at least not right now. Okay?"

Ty lee slowly nods "Okay." After a few moments of standing, Ty lee looked down at her hand that was being held by Balto's hand and realised how big they were when she moved her hand slighty in it "Balto..." she began wih an interested smile, though she was interupted by Balto, who was giving nervous smiles before quickly letting go and started walking away slowly "Heh, there are... certain traits like big hands that kinda... run in my family... at least, err, my mother's side of my family."

At the mention of Balto's mother, Ty lee remembered that he mentioned having to grow up with his 6 cousins, though he never said why. She also remembered Karmel mentioning his mother before and how sad Balto looked after she, Trish, Chan and Ruon-jian made fun of him, so she decided to ask one more personal question to Balto "Can I ask why you grew up with your 6 cousins?"

Balto halted from walking. Normally, he would rarely discuss his family with anyone and was usually very distant, but when around Ty lee, he felt like he could fully trust her and that she wouldn't make fun of him if he told her "Well, right after I was born, my mother got really sick and my father... well, he loves her very much and he's been taking care of her ever since. But he wasn't able to look after me too, so he sent me to my mother's sister."

Ty lee, after hearing this backstory, felt guilt building up inside her and looked downwards in attempt to hide her face and eyes, which were trying to hold back tears. She at first thought that her backstory was alot worse than Balto's, as her parents just viewed her and each of her sisters as 1 of 7 identical girls,whereas Balto, being a boy, could easily stand out from 6 female cousins. But at least her parents were capable of raising 7 girls at once and didn't give her or any of her sisters away to their relatives. Despite her efforts to hide, Balto saw the sadness in Ty lee's big puppy-primate eyes and tried to take her mind off it. He forced a sincere smile on to his face and asked "Hey, this probably isn't the best scenario, but how about when we get to Abner and Nikki's house, we sit together away from the others and you tell me about your childhood? Hopefully, it's not as depressnig as mine."

He then extended his arm and held out his hand, waiting for her to take it with her own. Ty lee thought over his scenario and beside thinking that she "owed" him her backstory after hearing his, she thought that it sounded nice. So she answered by smiling brightly, taking his hand and said "Okay!" And with that, they walked in happy, hand-holding silence.

* * *

As they continued walking, Azula felt the strange feeling again and it only seemed to be present when Nikki was about. Azula remembered the first time she felt the connection; when she saw Nikki in the distance and somehow locked eyes with her before Nikki walked away. She thought that it was strange that on the day they arrived, Nikki "happened" to be watching. Her suspicions about Nikki watching her arrival to Ember Island coincidentally drove Azula to ask Nikki "Did you know that we were coming to Ember Island yesterday?"

"What you do mean?" Nikki asked with a curious, friendly smile, despite knowing what Azula meant.

"Yesterday, when the 4 of us arrived, you just happened to be watching us from a distance, how come you were where you were when we arrived? What were you doing?"

Nikki's face went slightly sour "I'm not sure you'd believe me if I told you the reason."

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Because you don't believe in magic."

Azula momentarily paused in her steps, before catching up with Nikki "How could I not believe in magic; I saw sparks coming from your hand when you lifted the sand up, not to mention the slides from last night!"

"Exactly, you _**saw**_ me using magic, but seeing isn't the same as believing, _**princess**_."

Hearing how Nikki said the word "Princess" caused Azula to widedn her eys, sarcastically smirk and inadvertently give a small laugh, but it also gave her an idea "Okay then, let's try it this way; as the princess of the fire nation and _**your**_ superior, I demand you tell me the reason why you just happened to be watching me arrive yesterday."

This "threat" didn't seem to faze Nikki as she mockingly looked "surprised" as she continued to walk without breaking her walking pattern and spoke "Hmmmmmmmm, well normally, I revel in disobeying my "superiors"... Chan for instance, but I guess I'll make an exception if it's a superior who I like."

"So you'll tell me the reason?"

"I will, but 2 things first. One, don't say I didn't warn you as you'll think I'm crazy and second, I need to explain something else to you first or the reason won't make sense to you."

"Very well, as long as you tell me."

"Okay then... have you ever heard of Chakras?"

* * *

 **Hello! Hope you liked this chapter. Fun fact- I kept on awwwing as I was typing the Ty lee/Balto part of this chapter. For those who know what chakras are, then yes, chakras are apart of my story, but only in a minor way (probably just in chapter 19). For those who don't know what chakras are, you can:**

 **1\. Go on the avatar wikia**

 **2\. Watch "The Guru" episode**

 **3\. BE PATIENT AND WAIT FOR CHAPTER 19!**

 **Also, this is something that should've been covered since chapter 1; I know in the world of avatar that nearly every animal is a hybrid, but in my version, both hybrids and animals from our world exist in the world of avatar.**


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19:

Azula had never even heard of the word "Chakras" before, so she answered Nikki honestly "I can't say that I have, is it related to magic?"

"Only partially; basically, they're pools of energy in our body and if unlocked, our energy is able to flow more better than before. There are said to be 7 chakras in our body; each one located at a central area from the base of our spines to the crowns of our heads and they deal with and are blocked by certain emotions; they're of earth, water, fire, air, sound, light and thought, but the truth is there's a hidden eighth chakra."

"And what would this hidden chakra be exactly?" Azula asked, though she did have a good idea on what this hidden chakra was.

"The magic chakra; the reason it's a hidden chakra is because only certain people can unlock it on their own... and also, you don't need to unlock the other chakras if you open the magic chakra. It deals with the ability to be able to do magic and is blocked by a person's belief limit."

Azula thought over Nikki's explanation and asked if her simplified version was correct in order to comprehend how Nikki was able to do magic "So you're saying the reason you're able to do magic is because a pool-like version of energy inside you was unlocked due to you believing in something?"

"Well, I'm actually not sure how I unlocked mine, or if _I_ even did. I mean, believing is 1 of 2 ways I know of opening it; the other way which I read about in some books that Balto... "borrows" from his cousins, is by having someone who has already unlocked their magic chakra unlock yours for you."

"Okay then, but what does any of this have to do with you being on the beach and watching us arrive yesterday?"

"Well, another ability I have because of my magic chakra is that I'm able to sense others with unlocked magic chakras... and yesterday, me and Pekkala were exploring the woods when I sensed a very powerful magic chakra. It was filled with power, but also unknowingness as the person doesn't seem to know they have the potential for magic inside them, despite it feeling like it's been unlocked for some time. It was coming from the direction the beach was in, so we rushed there to see if we could find the person it belonged to and let them know, even if they didn't believe us."

"And did you find the person?"

"Yeah, I did... and said person is standing next to me right now."

Once again, Azula stopped in her tracks; only this time, Nikki stopped with her and Azula felt more shocked than before that she was finding it difficult to comprehend what Nikki had just said "Wait, you're saying that... I have the potential to do magic?" Azula asked with pure disbelief.

Nikki just sighed at Azula's disbelief "I told you you'd think I'm crazy. This is why I wanted to wait until you fully believed in magic."

"I _**do**_ believe in magic! How could I not after what I saw last night?!" Azula said, starting to feel frustrated, as if this girl thought it was funny to mess with her as well as disregarding her quote that _"seeing isn't the same as believing."_ Nikki just sighed and then held out her staff to Azula in an open palm "Okay fine then, if you really do believe in magic, then you should be able to levitate this into the air just by thinking it."

Azula stared at the staff exactly how Mai looks at everything. She figured in her head that if Nikki was telling the truth; that she really could do magic, then it would satisfy both of them to prove it "Fine then, if what you're saying is true, then I'll levitate it."

Nikki quietly exhaled through her nose "Okay, then here's something to help you... Magic is an emotion, something that you feel inside you, kinda like firebending. So, you just need to focus your energy on wanting to lift this staff up in a simillar way as you'd want to produce any amount of fire... like this." Nikki stretched out her free arm and slightly moved her side and the staff rose just a tad above Nikki's head. When she dropped her arm, the staff dropped back into Nikki's hand. And so, Azula tried to. She mimicked Nikki's demonstration and stretched out her arm with an open hand and focused on wanting to lift the staff from Nikki's hand. She was clearly trying as veins were slightly appearing on the back of her hand, but the staff remained still in Nikki's open hand. After a few minutes of fruitless concentration, Azula gave a frustrated "UGH!" while quickly bringing her arm back down to her side, indicating that she gave up.

"See, I don't have the potential to do magic, the staff didn't even move!"

"Yes you do! It's just the fact you don't properly believe. If you did, you'd be exemplary; everything else other than your belief is exactly how one does magic."

"Right, how exactly do you know it's me? Maybe it's someone else who has an open magic chakra and you confused it with me, maybe it's Ty lee; she believes in pretty much anything."

Nikki could tell that Azula was getting frustrated with this claim. Not that she blamed her. It's not everyday you get told that you have the potential to do something that you've only read about in stories. So Nikki concluded in her head that the best thing to do was to give Azula time to process this by herself.

"Okay, I'll let you think this through on your own. And who knows? Maybe you're right, maybe you don't have the potential for magic" she said as calmly as she could before slowly walking away from Azula, who was now less tense than before. Nikki then said while looking over her left shoulder to Azula before she ran off to catch up with the boys and Mai and Zuko "I mean, it's not like you felt an unexplainable connection to me when we locked eyes yesterday and have been feeling it every time you're around me."

Azula, after Nikki turned and ran off, felt now even more shocked than she had ever felt in her life. _"How could she have possibly known about that?! There's absolutely no way she could've known what I felt... unless... unless... she was right."_

* * *

 **Chapter 19 done and done. I didn't realise this at first but as I was getting near the end of this chapter, I kinda saw the relationship currently between Azula and Nikki is simillar to the relationship that Emma Swan and her son Henry have in the first season of Once Upon a Time. Just saying! Sorry my updates are taking a while, but I pledge to all viewers of this story, that I will complete this fanfiction. And that isn't just a promise; that a NikkitaThe Metahuman promise. My updates will, however, probably take longer as I am now back in college and am now doing A levels. But I hope you're still enjoying the story so far. Also, if possible, please review my defining of chakras. If it was unclear or false in anyway, please let me know and I will do my best to reword it.**

 **Final note: I am also going over previous chapters and have made some minor changes to Chapter 1, which I have now reposted. Again, just saying!**


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20:

Azula walked the rest of the way alone. Not by choice as Nikki had left her, although she appreciated Nikki giving her much needed space as her mind was filled with overwhelming emotions from confusion to shock. It was confusing and shocking enough for Azula to learn that magic was real and to be told that if she wanted to do magic, then all she had to do was "believe", " _whatever that apparantley meant"_ she thought in her head while having a pouty look on her face. But now, she had become even more shocked and confused than ever in her whole life now that Nikki had told her that she knew about Azula feeling a strange connection to her, when there was absolutely no logical way for anyone to know that unless Nikki felt it too. _"Nikki doesn't seem to have any reason to lie about anything, otherwise she would be like the teenagers from Chan's party and probably wouldn't have some kind of rivalry with all of them. And how else could she know unless she feels the connection too due to her magic chakra?"_

When Azula finally made it to Abner and Nikki's house, she stopped in the distance and saw, on the beach, Zuko and Mai sitting under their umbrella, Mai's head leaning on Zuko's shoulder while Zuko's head was leaning on Mai's head. Azula rolled her eyes in mild disgust at this sight _"Ugh, why did I get those 2 back together?! I could've got Zuko to come home from Ba sing sai with_ _ **out**_ _there being_ _ **any**_ _sights like this in the future!"_ She turned her attention away from this scene to 3 figures on that were on the left side of Mai and Zuko. She made the figures out to be Pekkala, Iorek and Pan in their big cat forms; all of whom were lying on their backs and appeared to be napping in the sun. Azula then looked over to near the ocean to see Nikki, who appeared to be playfully sparring with Abner and Tegs, the 3 of them using nothing but their bare hands. The 2 boys then brought Nikki down with fun smiles on their faces but despite this, Nikki seemed to be happy and laughing at losing the fight and was weakly hitting them in attempt to get up. Azula viewd this scene as strange _"How could she possibly be happy about being pinned down? It's like she's not even trying to get up..."_

"How come you're over here?" came a cheerful voice from behind her that snapped Azula out of her thoughts. She was startled for a moment, but kept her emotions hidden as always and turned around to see a smiling Ty lee with Balto on her left and Jahar on her right. "Ty lee, Balto, Jahar." Azula said while looking at them directly when she said their names. She then noticied, while lifting her head up from looking down at the wolf-dog daemon, that Ty lee and Balto were holding hands. This caused her left eyebrow to mildly rise. Balto and Ty lee saw what Azula was looking at and it caused them to begin smiling nervously before awkwardly letting go. Before things could get more awkward than they already were, Balto said to Ty lee "Hey, I'll go get us a towel and then you can hold up your end of the deal."

"Okay!" Ty lee said with a high, beaming smile. Balto then gave a quick smile to both girls and then walked over to the group of teens to get him and Ty lee a beach towel, unaware that Ty lee was watching him walk away with a small smile on her face and dreaminess forming in her eyes. Meanwhile, Jahar ran over to the group of daemons and changed into a caracal when he reached them. Pekkala remained lying down, though rolled on to her side when Jahar came up to her and briefly rubbed his head on hers, to which she rubbed back before he copied the trio and lied down on his back. Azula saw the look in Ty lee's eyes, so she snapped her out of her trance by waving her hand in front of her face and then asking Ty lee with minor concern "What kind of "deal" is Balto referring to?"

Ty lee seemed confused, but then remembered "Oh, he told me a bit more of his backstory and after I felt bad for upsetting him, he suggested I tell him some of my backstory once we got to here."

Azula felt unsure if Ty lee talking about herself would be good as Ty lee may accidently reveal hers and Zuko's identities to Balto, so she tried to convince Ty lee to not go through with her deal without giving away her concern or what Nikki had revealed to her "I don't think that would be a wise thing to do Ty lee. I mean, we only met them yesterday and they've said it themselves that they're not telling us everything right away. And besides, what more could you tell him; you basically said everything that occurred in your youth in less than 1 minute last night."

Ty lee appeared unfazed by this, though gave a pondering look downwards on the subject as she and Azula walked over to the group "I dunno, I guess we'll find something to talk about. I could probably tell him about my sisters."

"Did you even hear the first part of what I just said Ty lee?!" Azula asked, wondering loudly in her head how her friend wasn't considering the risks of opening up about herself, but Ty lee remained unfazed at her friend's concern "Yeah, but I think they just want us to get more use to them before telling us more about them; I mean we were a bit... well "scared" when Nikki levitated the sand in front of us; wasn't exactly suttle."

Azula sighed, knowing she wouldn't be able to talk Ty lee out of this anyway, though she did stop and turn Ty lee to face her "Fine, just don't mention who me and Zuko are to Balto... or Abner and Tegs either."

"What about Nikki?" Ty lee asked.

Azula found it amusing as it was as if she didn't know. _"Oh wait, she doesn't know. She was asleep."_ Azula remembered "Actually, I don't know how she knows, but NIkki somehow figured out who we are."

"Really?!" Ty lee was clearly shocked by this news, not that Azula didn't expect this reaction.

"Yes, but she's agreed to let me and Zuko tell her brother and her friends when we're ready, so for the time being, don't say who we are; I still want to see how we would be treated if we weren't royalty."

Ty lee simply smiled and said "Sure thing Azula.", wanting to show that she supported her friend's wishes, to which Azula smiled before looking away to see something that put a curious look on her face. Ty lee turned her eyesight to where Azula was looking and she saw Nikki with Balto. They had a brief hug and when Balto pulled away, he playfully rustled her hair and then walked back to Azula and Ty lee with a towel over his shoulder.

"Hey Ty lee, you sure you still wanna go through with the deal?"

"I'm sure." Ty lee stated in a simple voice. She and Balto then headed away from both the group and Azula. Azula watched as Balto set the towel down on the sand and thought that the way he and Ty lee sat upon it next to each other was similiar to Mai and Zuko. So to avoid being grossed out again, she turned her head away from the potential love scene and looked to see Nikki setting out a towel on the sand and, once sat upon it, looked behind her shouder and nudged her head forward while looking at Azula, as if beckoning her to come to her. Azula hesitated for a moment, but then decided to talk to Nikki.

* * *

 **Sorry for making you all wait a month. I was actually trying to make this chapter a full day, but I didn't want you to suffer anymore waiting. I'll complete short chapters for day 2 on ember island and then, there will be 5 chapters that will be an entire day and then a final chapter for when they go home. Until then, stay tuned and I hope you enjoyed chapter 20!**


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21:

When Azula came up to Nikki, who was sitting on a beach towel while looking out to the sea with her legs brought up to her chest by her arms and her staff being held horizontally in her hands, the princess sat down next to her in a lotus-sitting position without saying a word, as if she was expecting Nikki to say something first. When Nikki spoke, she sounded not loud, fun and rebellious, but quiet, serious and sadly calm "Sorry if I wasn't exactly suttle on telling you that you could do magic. I just thought you had a right to know you have that kind of potential inside you."

Azula was taken back from hearing Nikki's voice. It was similar to when Nikki told her and her friends her backstory. The princess decided that she needed consolation about what she revealed earlier and so asked while looking across the sea to the horizon "How did you know about the connection I felt to you?"

"Cos I felt it too. I'm just a bit more use to the feeling of it. I've felt it before with a few others who can do magic... and those who have the potential for it."

"Will you stop saying that?!" Azula said with high-pitched frustration. To Azula's surprise though, Nikki smiled at her reaction.

"You know, when regular kids who aren't in any way related to the royal family _**like**_ a person deep down in a friends kinda way, they don't act so hostile about it like you're doing right now."

Azula's eyes widened at this. It was as if she couldn't win. Every time she seemed to have an issue with this girl, it was simply rebuffed by general knowledge that the princess thought only she knew. But as irritating as it was, Azula strangely found it... nice? As strange as the thought was, the princess found it in a way, comforting that there was someone who she could truely relate too. And for once, Azula couldn't find the words to talk back to someone, so she remained silent with a mildly mortified look on her face. Nikki saw this and gently nudged her with her shoulder before she spoke to her "Hey, how about a deal?; I'll only talk about it if you bring it up; that sound fair?"

Azula found this deal comforting and didn't see a downside to it as Nikki apppeared to be more than honest "Very well then."

Nikki gave a bigger smile and changed her sitting position to a similar one Azula was in so she was facing Azula "So tell me then, how are you finding being a regular kid after 1 day on Ember Island?"

Azula figured she may as well be honest. If she truely wanted to feel the experience, she figured she would have to degrade herself a little, so she sighed "Other than meeting you and your friends, it's been unbearable."

"Hmm, I'm guessing you miss being able to make others cower in fear of you as there weren't any potential consequences before."

Azula was impressed. This girl knew of her princess' reputation "Indeed." she answered with a minor smirk.

"Then, I am offically making it my mission to find a way to help you feel like a princess in power while remaining disguised as a regular teen." Nikki announced as if giving a speech. Azula smirked a little. Nikki clearly had a child's imagination and attitude, as the princess didn't see how she could use power without exposing her identity... and she could calculate how to make an outcome be on her terms with no negatives from it; although it was good to know Nikki appeared as dedicated and respectful to her like Ty lee was, only without the bubbly personality. Little did she know that Nikki was once again, about to surprise her as she rose into a standing position with wide eyes and her vertically-held staff "In fact... I know exactly how to make that possible."

Azula's smirk was replaced with a puzzled frown "How?"

Nikki extended her arm and held her free hand out to Azula "Come with me and I'll show you."

Azula grabbed it and allowed Nikki to help her get up. Before they could go to wherever Nikki was planning to take her, she said "Oh wait, there's a minor price for it... do you have any silver pieces?"

"You're going to make me pay for your service?!"

"Oh, the money isn't for me; it's for the way to have power and it'll only accept silver pieces. Also, you're the one who wants to feel in power, so you're the one who has to pay the price. Trust me, it'll be worth it."

"Well, I don't have a lot of silver pieces; most of the money I have is in gold."

Nikki gave a quiet sigh of frustration "Okay, we'll have to make a quick stop first at the gambling area of the island before we can get you the power you need to feel."

"Why are you making it sound like a bad thing?"

"It's not, it's actually incredibly easy to win, but due to me figuring that out as well as my status and reputation on Ember Island, they don't allow me to participate anymore."

"So how come we're going there anyway?"

"I'll explain once we get there."

Azula didn't like Nikki not teling her everything right away, though she knew deep down that the frustrating fact was she wouldn't be able to win and the longer they continued this discussion, the longer it would take until Nikki would eventually tell her "Okay, fine."

* * *

Further away, at the same time as Azula sat down next to Nikki, Ty lee sat down on the towel Balto had placed on the sand and prepared to hold up her end of the deal. After he was sat down, Balto asked in his low voice "So... what's it like having 6 identical sisters?"

Ty lee gave a sad smile "Well, it's not exactly a happy childhood to grow up with parents who call you Ty lin, Ty lat, Ty lao, Ty liu, Ty lum and Ty woo at least once."

"Those are the names of your 6 sisters?" Ty lee nodded her head and Balto's bright blue eyes mildly widened "Wow, you weren't kidding when you said you and your sisters had similar names."

"I don't really "kid" at all when I talk about anything that's related to my family." Ty lee replied, her sad smile was now apppearing less as a smile as she recalled how her parents always mistook her and her sisters for each other and how the 7 of them did everything similar whether it came to the type of clothes they'd wear, their acrobatics which were as good and impressive as hers, their bubbly personalities _(minus Ty woo)_ , even choosing to have the exact same hairstyle!. Just as Ty lee could tell when he was upset, Balto could tell when she was, so he tried to ask a more positive question "Wasn't there any way of telling you all apart from each other?"

"Well, we did have different-coloured clothes, but our parents then started comparing us all to each other. So we each had a thing of our own to stop that from continuing; Ty lin plays the flute, Ty liu plays the harps, Ty lum does oragami, Ty lat does swimming, Ty lao does dancing and Ty woo... well, Ty woo _**insults**_ people."

"Hmm, Ty woo doesn't sound like the friendliest of the 7 Ty sisters."

Ty lee briefly laughed at the thought as well as the title Balto had given her and her siblings "Yeah, she isn't."

Balto then decided to alter the deal he made with Ty lee by saying "You know, you might not think it Ty lee, but I am, in a way very similar to my cousins."

This made Ty lee feel confused "How can you possibly think you're similar to those girls Balto?! I mean you're kind, you know how to say things in the right way and you also have a good aura. The 4 cousins that I've met so far don't have any of those qualities. Their auras..."

"...Hardly have any good in them" Balto interupted. "Yeah, I know. The one way that I'm similar to them is... well... a family matter of sorts."

Ty lee at first felt surprised that Balto knew exactly how she was going to describe the auras of his cousins, then she felt happiness and exciment that he had something else in common with her. But after hearing the way he mentioned he had a similarity to them to a family matter "of sorts", the happiness seemed to be drained from her mind and was replaced with confusion, but mainly distrust "You're not telling me everything about this... similarity you have to your cousins, are you?"

Balto sighed "Look, the reason I'm not fully explaining it because it's not something I'm proud of. But I promise I will tell you. Just... not right now. That okay?"

"Okay then." Ty lee answered with reassurance. That aside, she went back to her happy state and said while slowly putting her hand on Balto's "It's... good knowing you can read auras like me, means we have something else in common." though after touching it for barely a second, she pulled back from feeling something cold on her wrist. She looked down to his hand and saw that it was not his hand that was cold, but rather a silver band covering his wrist. She stared at it with curiousity fo a few seconds and then asked "How come you're wearing that on your wrrist?"

"Oh... well um... you-you know how I said that my simlarity is kind of a family matter?" The acrobat rapidly nodded her head "Well, it's a... it's well um... it's like a... a genetically-inherited behaviour and these bands surpress it inside me." he said while bringing up both his hands to reveal a pair of silver bands covering his wrists.

"Don't they hurt? They look like they're really tight." She said with concern.

"Not really, my skin's actually quite tough and the bands only appear tight; they're really not." After hearing that, Ty lee grabbed Balto's arm with both her hands and softly squeezed it "Not that I don't believe you, but your skin doesn't feel that tough." She couldn't help but continue to squeeze his arm. Despite feeling and looking soft, skinny and tender, they did have a deep, strong build and Ty lee couldn't help but say in a dreamy voice "Although, they do feel strong."

"Well, that's good to know..." Balto said with an enthusiastic tone and smile and then he said in his low voice while lightly grabbing Ty lee's hand with his own "...it's also good to know you think I have a good aura."

* * *

4 chapters ago:

Zuko and Mai walked with Abner, Tegs and the 3 daemons to Abner's house. Zuko looked behind him to notice that Nikki, Azula, Ty lee and Balto weren't behind them, though it didn't stop him from walking. Instead, he asked outloud "Where are the others?"

"Don't worry, I'm sure they'll catch up." came Tegs' optimistic voice after he looked behind him and then to Zuko.

"Wait, Nikki isn't behind us?" came Abner's voice with minor concern.

Tegs let out a single breath _"Not one time he can make it without worrying...!"_ he said under his breath before going up to Abner, who was starting to walk back to the beach "...Abner, come on, she'll be fine, she and Balto and the other 2 newbies'll meet us at your house."

"Something might have happened, there's no harm in checking."

Mai felt some distrust inside her that couldn't be held in. The boys weren't telling them everything and Abner seemed to only show concern for Nikki and as annoying as Mai found her, she seemed more than capable of taking care of herself, so she decided to intervene "What kind of trouble could they possibly get into?"

Tegs and Abner looked to her and Zuko as if they had forgotten that they were there. Tegs then said "Nothing, Abner's only concerned because Nikki's his sister."

Zuko decided to weigh in "Why? It's not like she's helpless; she does have magic and what would she need to protect herself from anyway?" Both boys lked at each other and remained silent, unsure of what to say to the couple. Zuko then remembered what Nikki had spoke of the previous night and spoke again to the boys "Is it the CS you're worried about?" The boys appeared to be in shock after Zuko spoke "CS". Mai was confused as she had no idea where Zuko had got "CS" from. Abner then asked "How do you know abou..." then realization struck his face "When did Nikki tell you about the CS?"

"Last night when she wanted to talk to me and my sister. Nikki's already said that we're not being told everything and that we'd be told tomorrow, so now that it's tomorrow, will you explain some things to us?"

"Come on Abner, they do have a right to know... and if Nikki is in any trouble, Pekkala will let us know."

Abner sighed "Alright then, you make a fair point." he said to Tegs. He turned to Mai and Zuko "What do you want to know then?" he asked as they continued walking. Zuko walked with his arm around Mai's waist while Mai had her arm on Zuko's shoulder. Zuko asked the first question "Your daemons last night, they changed into dragons, but those don't look like any dragons we've ever seen in stories or history books. How's that possible?"

Tegs answered the fire prince's question "I found this book on dragons and it showed different dragon species. The forms our daemons take are close to the original dragons. The ones you've read about are descendants of Grapple Grounders; they were one of the few dragons that evolved."

"Grapple Grounder?" Mai sounded out, confused at the term.

"That's the name of the dragon species, according to the book. And Yes, it does sound ridiculous." he said, seeing the look on Mai's face.

"Do the dragon forms that your daemons have also have ridiculous names?" she asked, not being able to hold her dull-sounding sarcasm, though she did have a smile on her face when she asked, to which Zuko smiled at to himself when he noticied this.

This time, Abner responded "You tell us; Iorek's dragon form is a Monstrous Nightmare, Pan's dragon form is a Deadly Nadder and Jahar's dragon form is a Night Fury."

Zuko thought about the names given to the dragon forms that Iorek, Jahar and Pan took and said "They sound a lot better than "Grapple Grounder" does."

Abner smiled "Hmph, yeah they kinda do."

Mai then decided to ask, since she was the only one of the four who didn't know "What exactly are the CS?"

Abner answered in a serious-sounding tone that Zuko could swear sounded almost exactly like him when he was being serious "Well first off, CS stands for Child Snatchers. It's a name Nikki and most kids refer to them as because it's basically what they do."

Both Zuko and Mai were clearly shocked at this and they didn't seem to realize that they had arrived near Abner's house due to the confused looks on the usually emotionless couples' faces as Abner and Tegs got out 2 beach towels from their bag. Then, the pair looked about and saw the house in need of repair that was clearly Abner and Nikki's house. The darkness from the previous night covered the minor chips in the walls and the roof and its height appeared smaller in the daylight. The couple followed suit and lay a beach towel on the sand and stuck their umbrella pole into the sand to provide them with shade. They looked up ahead and saw Pekkala, Iorek and Pan lying down on their backs, still in their wild cat forms. After they were all settled, Zuko asked "Why exactly are there "Child Snatchers" on Ember Island?"

"They work for the Ember Island Facility Orphanage."

"Why would an orphanage kidnap children?"

"And why does no one seem to properly know about this?" asked Mai with mild anger in her voice.

"We don't know. Nikki's theory is that it somehow got corrupt and now, they're basically taking any kids they find at night with no grown-ups with them. Nobody knows about this because the kids they take are street kids, so no one seems to care and they haven't been proven to have taken any non-street kids."

"How do you know they're kidnapping children then?" Zuko asked, hoping they didn't have proof of something so cruel occuring on the island.

"Because a few years ago, they caught Nikki. They took her there and she met some kids who claimed that they weren't orphans. She knew they were telling the truth and she was able to escape and she told us what happened and what she saw. She's the only kid who's ever been able to escape from that place alive and unharmed."

Zuko and Mai didn't expect to hear anything like this. Kidnapping being committed on the very island they were standing on seemed spine-chilling enough, but Nikki didn't appear as if she had gone through any kind of traumatizing experience and hearing that she had in fact been kidnapped sent chills to every bone in their bodies. Abner then said "Look, if you want to ask Nikki about what happened, try to bring it up gently; you've probably noticied she acts like a child rather than a teenager, she kinda is a child in a way. She has the imagination of one and destroying it would be the last thing you'd wanna do."

"Sure thing." Zuko stated while Mai nodded in agreement with her boyfriend.

"Hey Tegsy, Abner!" came a cheerful voice from behind.

"Hey Nikki!" Abner said to his sister. Zuko noticied that Azula, Ty lee, Balto and his daemon weren't with her, so he asked "Where's everyone else?"

"Don't sweat it, they'll catch up, they're not that far behind."

"Oh good." Abner said before his tone darkened slightly "Now tell me why you decided to tell him and his sister about the CS last night."

Nikki appeared amused by this. She took a step forward to her brother and asked challengingly "And what if I don't tell you?"

Abner's smile widened as the brother and sister appeared to be changing the subject "Then you'd better hope that staff can protect you from 1 of the 3 Big Bads."

"Oh I don't need _ **this**_ to fight you." she said as she threw her staff diagonally forward that landed about 10 feet from her brother's feet. "It is _**ON**_ big bro."

"Bring it, little sis."

Nikki took a step back and then charged and jumped up at her brother with an **_"AAARRGH!"_** which caused him to laugh as he spun away from Mai, Zuko and Tegs while holding Nikki before gently letting her go on to the sand. Nikki laughed and then got up and charged at Abner again. The 2 locked hands and attempted to push the other one down. Mai and Zuko found it odd that Abner knew so much about his sister and that they appeared to get on so well, not to mention they acted like children. Zuko could've sworn when the siblings locked hands, he saw himself and Azula play-fighting when they were kids. As if she read Zuko's mind again, Mai asked Tegs "How are they like that?; Abner and Nikki?"

"Oh they've always been like that, though it pretty much started when their parents left."

"TEGS, she's too strong! I need reinforcement!" came Abner's voice, who was clearly pretending to not being able to get up from Nikki, who was playfully hitting him in slow-motion.

"Coming!" Tegs shouted back, as if he'd forgotten about Zuko and Mai completely and rushed to Abner's "rescue". As he lifted Nikki up from her waist, Nikki shouted "Cheaters!" before laughing loudly witih the 2 boys and continuing to wrestle them. Zuko and Mai appeared baffled at this display, but rather than talk about it, they instead sat in silence looking towards the horizon.

* * *

Present time:

As Azula and Nikki walked to the 4 teens who were lying on the sand, Tegs got up and asked "Hey Nikkita, where are you off to?" Abner sat up while Zuko and Mai turned their heads around from under their umbrella.

"It's a need-to-know Tengshu, and all you need to know is we're on a secret mission."

Abner looked at her with cautious eyes before asking "Are you planning to commit a murder Nikki?" This shocked Azula, Zuko and Mai. Just when they thought they couldn't get stranger, they stood corrected.

Nikki groaned sarcastically "Don't you think if I was planning a murder, I would be more stealthy about?"

Tegs looked to Abner "She has a point mate." He then looked towards Nikki "Fine, but at least take this." he said while going into a dark red bag and pulled out Nikki's purple poncho.

"Thanks Tegsy." she said as she took it and put it around her her neck like a scarf.

"Hey, before you go, I've just realized something; we don't your names." Tegs said gesturing to Zuko and Azula. The eyes of the royal siblings widened slightly as they didn't wanna reveal their true identites yet. Zuko went first "My name's Lee." he said, going with with alias used in the Earth kingdom as it also happened to be a popular name in the Fire Nation too. He figured Azula would come up with her own alias. Mai laughed in her head at this as she recalled when he used it around that girl Jin in Ba Sing Se and she was able to get long-waited revenge by causing him to fall into a fountain like he did with her years ago as kids.

"And what about you? Abner asked Azula.

Azula thought of what to to be referred as and then she decided to go with her middle name "I'm Ilah." Abner smiled at this. And with that, Nikki and "Ilah" left for their secret mission.

* * *

 **Sorry for making you all wait, but here's chapter 21! Tomorrow, I'm going to a caravan site, so I won't have an internet connection, but that doesn't mean I can't start working on chapter 22. Hope you're still enjoying the story, though you may want to get used to me not updating very often. College work is incredibly hard and I need to do revision on all my subjects. But I promise, keep believing, don't lose faith nor give in to doubt and this story will be completed.**


	22. Chapter 22

**To all my readers, hope you enjoy this chapter and have a Happy Halloween!**

* * *

Chapter 22:

Once Nikki and Azula, now under the alias "Ilah", were out of the group's hearing range and after Azula managed to get the few silver pieces she did possess per Nikki's request by sneaking in through a window without disturbing her firebending teachers from their sleep (which was easy due to their snoring), they continued their discussion. Azula was the first to break the silence by asking "So when are you going to tell me your plan on getting more silver pieces from people that won't allow you to gamble against them?"

"We need to go to an isolated location first, can't risk anyone learning about it, but trust me; once I tell you the plan, it'll make sense why I'm not telling you now."

Azula sighed "Alright then." Nikki felt her frustation and tried to come up with something to take her mind off havng to be patient for longer than she predicted "Nice alias by the way; for both you and your brother."

"My alias is much better than _**"Lee"**_. My brother probaby used it while hiding from Earth Kingdom peasants." the princess spoke in amusment at both thoughts.

"Maybe in royal terms, Ilah is better than Lee, but Lee is a very common name in the Fire Nation as well as the Earth Kingdom whereas not many people in the whole **world** are named after Fire Lord Azulon's wife."

Azula's face went sour and scrunched "Okay, Ilah happens to be my middle name as well as my grandmother's name... you must have gone to school, how else would you know all this?!"

"Maybe I did go to school or maybe my brother paid a lot of attention in class and then educated me at home about what he had learnt everyday at the Royal Fire Acadamy for Boys."

This gave Azula pause. She didn't think neither Nikki nor Abner would have gone to either of the Royal Academies as only upper-class children went to the Royal Academies and neither one of them appeared as upper class in either appearance or personality. "Your brother went to the Royal Fire Academy for Boys?"

"Yeah, he, Tegs and Balto all went; we may not be rich, doesn't mean we aren't high in social standards."

Azula guessed that the high social standards that Nikki was referring to were due to all their parents or ancestory. "Are the high social standards you and your friends have from your parents?"

"Yeah, it was their fathers who started off with power; Tegs' father and Balto's father are noblemen from the colonies. As for Abner's father, he started off as a soldier slash blacksmith descended from a long line of blacksmiths, but after seeing how impressive his combat skils were in the armor he designed himself, he was promoted to Admiral by Fire Lord Azulon."

Azula was intrigued at the story of Nikki's father as the princess remembered hearing about a famous Admiral and his wife with the same promotion story in school as well as reading about the battle armor he designed. But what intrigued her more was every time Nikki spoke of her father, she referred to him as Abner's father, so Azula decided to test her by asking about her parent's identities "Hang on, your parents aren't by any chance Admiral Ling and his wife Lian, are they?" After asking her question, Nikki remained silent and her joy seemed to drain from her face, mainly her eyes that were avoiding the princess' curious ones. Nikki then said "Well... technically, they're my biological parents, but they're more Abner's parents than mine... and yeah, Ling and Lian are Abner's parents... and I suppose my **biological** ones."

Azula was surprised that Nikki called her parents by their first names and didn't regard them as her parents, but only her brother's parents "How come you don't think of them as your parents?"

"Well call me crazy, but I think it takes more than blood to make 2 people your parents. My so-called parents kept me hidden from the world for the 9 years and 362 days I was in their lives before they left for some "buisness" in the capital city and they haven't come back or contacted us once after 5 years. They rarely interacted with me at all and they didn't even say goodbye to me. My only conclusion is they were ashamed of me just because I'm a complete opposite to my brother and that's why they finally left. Though, why they left Abner behind; I still don't know."

Azula's mind vicariously triggered the memory of the last words her mother ever spoke to her before she mysteriously disappeared 5 years ago _"Go to bed young lady._ _ **Now.**_ " Azula herself hadn't been given a goodbye and remembered feeling the urge to cry when she heard the news that Ursa was nowhere to be found and had always thought ever since, that her mother was either dead... or that she finally left because of the daughter she regarded as a... **monster**. And why she left Zuko; Azula couldn't figure that out. But not wanting Nikki to catch on to that memory, she asked "How are you a complete opposite to Abner?"

"1. He's a boy; I'm a girl. 2. He's a firebender; I'm a non-bender and 3. He was born with perfect health; I was born with a strange purple mark on my back that is definetly not a birthmark. Also, I didn't discover my magic abilities until after they left, so they didn't even know what I was capable of and they still don't know."

Azula couldn't believe any of this to be true; there was no way any 2 parents could both ignore their child for 10 years. She then saw Nikki grab the poncho around her neck as if she was cuddling it. Azula could see that their current conversation wasn't exactly positive, so she attempted to do what Nikki did and change the topic "That poncho around your neck; why did Tegs insist on you bringing it?"

As if by magic, Nikki's expression on her face changed from sad to mildly happy as if she'd forgotten their previous topic of discussion while keeping her eyes glued to the cloth she was holding in her hand "It's kinda my good luck charm as well as mainly my most valued possession."

That was the last thing Azula had expected to hear, even if most of the things Nikki had said seemed crazy. The poncho around her neck was worn with many sewed-up holes and the hood appeared as if it could fall off at any moment. "Why would you consider an old poncho your most valued possession? It seems like an old piece of cloth."

"Maybe to you and everyone else it seems like an old cloth, but this isn't just a poncho; it used to be my baby blanket." Before Azula could ask about her poncho/baby blanket, Nikki said "And that is a different story that can wait for another time because we're here." Azula looked to "here" and saw a cliffside overlooking the sea and far away from the homes and beach houses. She couldn't even remember passing the trees and big rocks behind her. _"She is really good at passing time."_ Azula thought as she went up on to the cliff with Nikki and as Nikki turned around, Azula heard "Okay Ilah, here's the plan... and don't freak out..."

* * *

The gambling area of Ember Island wasn't very crowded other than the few teenagers passing the 1 teenage boy and 3 teenage girls guarding sacks of money underneath the shade of the sides of the roofs of 2 conjoining beach houses. The boy who called himself Leong had tanned skin, brown hair in a small bun and was wearing a red short-sleeved top and long brown pants. The first girl was called Amira, the second girl was called Xahira (though she preferred Xan) and the third girl was called Faida. Amira had light brown hair in a long thin braid, a white top with mid-length black sleeves and a long red skirt. Xan had slightly darker brown hair than Amira and had it in a long pony tail. She wore a red top with long pinkish-grey sleeves, short black pants, red shoes and a yelow belt with a fire symbol. Faida had black hair, some in a bun while the rest was in a long braid. She wore a maroon tunic over a red long-sleeved top and matching red pants that were mid-length and red shoes. This notorious quartet were masters of the Shell Shuffle scam. Leong and Amira would lure unsuspecting kids and teens into a "friendly" game where they could get more money the first time they played, but would lose it all the second time as Faida would shuffle the shells and move the rock into her baggy-looking sleeves so that the gang could keep the money that Xan watched over like a guard chimpahound. Spying for others to scam, Leong noticied a girl passing by with a worried look in her eyes that were looking into her hand that had 3 siver pieces in it. He saw the opportunity and seized it by running over to her and grabbing her shoulder "Hey! Are you okay? You appear troubled."

When she turned around, she reminded him of his friend Xahira, but without the scary glare in her eyes nor the dark voice as she spoke "Not really, I was hoping to have fun at the Ember Island Arcade, but I don't have a lot of money to spend."

"Hmm that is a bummer, but I think I can help you with that."

"How?"

"Well as luck would have it, I run this gambling buisness that could get you more coins."

"I don't know, I mean I already have a small amount and if I lose, I'd have even less coins."

"That is true, but I assure you that it should be fun and who knows, you might be lucky."

"Weeellllllll, alright then, I suppose it couldn't hurt to try."

"That's the spirit!" he said with a smile as he put his arm around her shoulders and lead her to the gambling table "I'm Leong by the way, what's your name?"

"llah." the disguised princess said as she controlled her growing inner fire and allowed the over-confident boy to lead her into what he would come to regret. She saw 3 girls; 1 sat infront of a box that Azula assumed to be their stage. The other 2 were near what Azula counted to be 28 small bags that she assumed were their scammed prizes from gullible teens and children. Leong introduced Ilah to the girl at the box "Faida, this lovely lady is Ilah and she's interested in risking her well-saved money to get more for the Ember Island arcade." Azula resisted to scrunch her face in disgust at the mention of "lovely lady" and kept a convincingly shy look on her face as she looked at Faida, who said "Well, that's an awfully big risk, you sure you know what you're doing?"

Azula hated how they were talking to her as if she were a 3 year old, but kept her rage hidden and continued to appear shy, clueless and helpless. She the said while overly nodding her head "Yeah, I know what I'm doing."

Faida smiled as "Ilah" sat down and placed 1 of her 3 silver pieces on to the box. Faida lifted all 3 shells to reveal a small pebble under the middle shell. She then placed them back down and began shuffling them. Azula kept her eyes on the shell with the pebble in it while behind the box, Faida had 2 other pebbles go into the the 2 shells that didn't possess the pebble in case Ilah guessed wrong the first time. She then stopped and allowed Ilah to take a pick. Azula guessed the one on the left and when Faida lifted it, it revealed a pebble and Faida threw 5 silver coins on to the box as Azula's winnings.

Leong spoke "Wow, I thought it was under the middle shell, you clearly have good vision!"

"Indeed." came Xan's dark voice in the shade. "Maybe if you bet bigger, you could get an even bigger amount."

"True, but 8 silver pieces still seems small."

"Maybe you'd be interested with an alternative bet."

Azula's left eyebrow raised "I'm listening."

"How about if you win, you get 50 **gold** pieces," he said as Amira placed 2 bags on the box. "And if you lose, you agree to go on a date with me."

Azula wanted so badly to unleash her fury, but instead just tensed up her face as she said "You think going on a date with me is equal to recieving 50 gold pieces?"

"Unless you can bet something that's definetly valuable, this is your only option." Amira said before introducing herself "I'm Amira by the way and that's Xahira!"

"Call me Xan." she said while looking Azula in the eye like an eagle-hawk. Azula then pondered before saying "Make it 100 silver pieces and I'll agree." Behind her, Leong smiled enlarged and he enthusiastically nodded. Faida took back the 2 bags of gold and traded them for 4 bags of silver. "Done."

Faida began shuffling the shells again faster than the first time. She brought all 3 pebbles into her sleeves and then after shuffling for a bit, she stopped and allowed "Ilah" to take her pick. Azula pondered and then said with bold confidence "This time, it's under the middle cup."

"Ooh, what makes you so certain if you don't mind me asking?" Leong said.

"Here's how." Azula smiled innocently as she lifted up the shell on the left and on the right to reveal nothing under either one of them. The eyes of the 4 teens widened as they had lost 100 silver pieces and there wasn't even anything under the middle one and they couldn't expose this or they'd get caught scamming. Azula saw this and said "You weren't expecting to lose 100 silver pieces. Looks like you were right, I do have good vision."

She grabbed the 4 bags and got up, putting the 8 silver pieces she already had in one of the bags and walked off leaving the quartet of scammers stunned and baffled.

When Azula went behind a beach house, there was a purple-hooded figure there "Nice job **_"Ilah"."_** the figure said as it removed its hood revealing it to be Nikki with a big grin on her face as Azula handed her 2 of the bags since they both were involved in scamming the scammers. "Now it's off to the Ember Island arcade."

"Hang on, that's where we're going? How's an arcade going to make me feel in power?"

"It's not the arcade, it's a very specific game inside it and I know that once you start playing it, you'll feel like a princess again."

* * *

 _Flashback:_

 _"Okay Ilah, here's the plan... and don't freak out..." Azula heard Nikki's voice say, but didn't see her mouth open once. Azula may've run away if she hadn't heard Nikki's voice then say "Don't worry, you're not going crazy; it's called Telepathy; a magic ability that allows you to communicate with others through your mind. If you can hear me and don't feel any pain, sit down with me." Azula complied and sat down on the ledge of the cliff with Nikki, their feet dangling over what looked like a hundred-foot drop. Nikki then said_

 _"I'm using this to lower the chances of us being heard; you'd be surprised of how many secrets are heard and passed around as rumors everyday on Ember Island."_

 _The princess showed her belief in this by raising her eyebrows for a brief moment. Nikki continued "Okay, you're going to go into the gambling area by yourself while I hide behind a beach house. You'll see 4 teenagers in the shade of the sides of 2 conjoining beach house roofs. Make sure when you pass that you appear worried while looking at the 3 silver pieces you have. The 1 boy of the quartet called Leong will come up to you. Tell him that you wanted to play games at the Ember Island Arcade, but you don't have a lot to spend and ask he'll ask you to try the shell shuffle game. Cautiously agree to it and if he introduces himself, be certain to do the same with your alias. Now the girl who does the shuffling is Faida and the reason everyone wins the first time is beacuse she has 2 extra pebbles hidden in her sleeves that slip in as she shuffles the shells and they all lose the second time because she removes all 3 pebbles back into her sleeves. However, I worked out a trick; if you play a second time, say that you know which shell the pebble's under and then lift the 2 shells you didn't guess. That way, they won't be able to scam you without exposing their scam."_

 _Azula smiled maniacally at Nikki's plan. It seemed flawless, although she didn't like that she'd have to do it solo, especially when Nikki said through telepathy that she'd have to resist the urge to firebend should Leong propose a date with her and that they'd talk to her as if she were an infant. But if this would get her the power she needed, then she'd do whatever it took._

* * *

Once the girls reached the arcade, Azula followed Nikki to a game that appeared to her as some kind of Boom! Pow! fighting game. Nikki then talked to her about the game " **This** is **_Street bender"_** a.k.a. the most state-of-the-art in fire nation arcade entertainmet a.k.a. the game that is going to remind you of who you really are. Two players face off in a fight to the death with cute warrior dolls."

"I'll take your word it's a good game, but how will this help me feel in power?"

"Because this isn't just a Street bender game, it's an **_Avatar_** version of Street bender; even you and your brother are in it."

"What?" Azula asked as Nikki put in a siver coin a pressed what she assumed was a character-picking button and from a giant slot came a doll that Nikki picked up and gave to Azula while saying "See for yourself" before putting in another silver coin and pressing another characater button. Azula looked at the doll in her hand and it although it clearly didn't have her figure (as all the doll's body parts were circular), it did look like her. It had her hairstyle, her battle face (narrow eyes and a devious smile) and was wearing her black armor. This was probably the one doll that she had ever liked. When she looked up, she saw Nikki placing her apparant character which was the Avatar on to the slots in the ring that its feet go in. Azula did the same with her character. Nikki then said while demonstrating by moving the rods which moved the avatar doll"Okay, here's how the game works; these 2 rods move your character about the ring. The buttons on the rods make your character attack. Every hit on your opponent causes them to lose one life bar. The person who causes their opponent to lose all 3 life bars wins."

"Well in that case, let the games begin..."


	23. Chapter 23

**I have a confession to make, I finished this 3 days ago. Since it's near Christmas Day, I thought I'd present it as a present. To make up for making you all wait since Halloween plus 3 days, there is an extra christmas present at the end of this chapter for all readers of this fanfic who are enjoying it. I hope it makes up for the waiting. Thank you for your patience and have a Merry Christmas!**

* * *

Chapter 23:

After Nikki and Azula left for their secret mission, Ty lee and Balto came over to the remaining teens. Balto said "Hey" to the group of 4. Abner and Tegs gave a similar reply while Zuko and Mai gave small waves to the two. Ty lee then sat down next to Mai, who whispered into the acrobat's ear what to refer to Zuko and Azula as while Balto asked Zuko "Where did your sister go with Nikki?"

Zuko shrugged "No idea."

Abner answered "They're, to quote Nikki, on a secret mission."

Balto then asked in a minorly sarcastic tone "Aaaand you're positive Nikki didn't take her to help her commit a murder?"

Tegs looked up to him as if he were about to laugh and simply said "She persuaded us that when the day comes that she's planning a murder, we'll be able to tell. So, we're still in the clear." As Balto gave a brief laugh at that and sat down, Ty lee then asked "Why would you think Nikki's planning to kill someone?"

"Twice in one day as a matter of fact." Zuko added.

Abner then spoke "Well, we did hand-raise Nikki ever since she was a baby, so we know exactly how she operates and based on that, our estimate is that she is only one devastating insult away from becoming a foe even worse than a fully-realized avatar."

Zuko, Mai and Ty lee were all at a loss for words. It sounded like they were joking, but they believed their statement to be true as the boys hadn't joked before. Ty lee then asked "You 3 hand-raised Nikki when she was a baby?! How is that even possible?! Wouldn't you all be 3 years old?!"

Abner took in a single breath before answering all 3 of Ty lee's questions "Yes we hand-raised Nikki ever since she was a newborn, it's incredibly possible when you're a child prodigy according to your parents and we were actually 2 years old."

"Didn't your parents help you raise Nikki at all?" Mai asked, secretly hoping that Abner would say "Yes" to her question and that Nikki was exaggerating; to which he did "When Nikki says stuff like that, she's just exaggerating a bit. Our parents didn't exactly give her a similar childhood to mine due to her illness, but I'm sure it wasn't as bad as she claims it to be. She does have the mind of a child... it's kind of her way of communicating."

"That's clear enough." Zuko said while thinking of how much Nikki reminded him of Azula when she was little and how she would act as smart and witty as Nikki did and how much it annoyed him to admit that Azula was both of those deep down due to her always putting him down about her being a prodigy at everything they did. He was pulled out of his thoughts by Abner's gentle, yet serious voice "Lee, not to criticise you, but don't you or either of you 2 say anything like that around Nikki. It could really upset her if she suspects you don't take her seriously and trust me, it's heart-breaking to see Nikki upset."

Just before they could continue, a voice came from behind them "Hey guys!" They turned to see Nikki and Azula coming up to them, both with smiles on their faces. Zuko, Mai and Ty lee all found this weird as they had never seen Azula smile the way she was now. It appeared to be a mildly genuine smile rather than her smile after winning a battle or even a simple game like after they won Kuai Ball yesterday. Abner's expression and voice changed completely "Heeey Nikki! So you finally gonna tell us where you and Ilah went to?"

Nikki looked over at "Ilah", who simply nodded. Nikki then said "Weeeee kinda went to the gambling area before heading to the arcade to spend our winnings on some very-needed fun and games."

"More like fun and **game**. We only played on one game since Street Bender is apparantly the only game in the arcade that's worth playing according to Nikki." Azula added causually.

Tegs then asked "Wait a sec Nikkita, I thought they didn't let you gamble against them anymore."

"They don't. That's why I taught Ilah my strategy. Left the 4 of them in pieces when they lost 100 silver coins!" While everyone else seemed to either grow a bigger smile on their face or appear stunned with impression, Abner seemed like a volcano that was about to errupt "You bet them **100** silver coins?! Your instincts may have never once been wrong Nikki, but do you have any idea what could've happened if you lost? You could've got in big trouble!"

Nikki looked downward at her brother and it reminded Ty lee how Nikki looked at her when she said she had six identical sisters with similar names to hers. Nikki then said dramatically "Oh sure, I scam them on my own twice and with a partner in crime once and you scold me, but you don't scold the notorious quartet; who by the way have scammed more kids on more ocassions than all our fingers and toes combined?!"

Abner sighed loudly before Nikki continued "And for the record, they were the ones who proposed 50 gold pieces if Ilah won the second time, she altered it to 100 silvers and they agreed to it. Also, it was for a noble cause."

"Fine, your judgement will be passed on what the "noble cause" is."

"Ilah had an inner turmoil and I thought the arcade would take her mind off it. And by the looks of it, I suceeded." She said smiling at Azula, who in turn returned a smile. Nikki continued to her brother "Also, the only bad thing that would've happened if she lost is that she'd have been forced into going on a date with Leong."

"WHAT?!" Zuko couldn't control his rage nor shock.

"You honestly agreed to go on a date with someone if you lost a bet?!" Ty lee said, not believing her ears.

"You must have had a really bad turmoil if you willingly agreed to that." Mai said as if it were nothing.

Azula felt slightly insulted at her brother's and friends' reactions, but kept it in to avoid any suspicion. Abner looked at all 3 reactions of "Lee", Mai and Ty lee and then sighed "Fine, since they seemed convinced enough, we'll agree it was for a noble cause." As Nikki smirked at this, the 4 daemons came over in their big cat forms and lied down on their stomachs near their respective owners.

"So you lot have finally woken from your cat-nap?" Balto said enthusiastically, resulting in a small giggle from Ty lee while Pekkala and Nikki rolled their eyes with cheeky smiles. Zuko and Mai turned their heads to each other, both looking creeped out. It was almost as if they were both saying in sign language _"I'm still not used to the daemons, lets go somewhere else for the time being"_ as they got up with their parasol and told the group that they were going for a walk, to which Azula rolled her eyes at and Ty lee smiled at dreamily. After they left, the boys and Nikki told Azula and Ty lee about their daemons' dragon forms (as they still needed to be told). Ty lee was openly fascinated while Azula was secretly fascinated. As a girl, she had heard stories about the slayings of the ultimate firebenders, but this story seemed nothing like what she had heard and she had never seen other dragon types before. They were then told about the EIFO, which had mainly Ty lee asking lots of concerned questions to Nikki. Tegs saw Nikki getting mildly annoyed at this, so he then asked "Ilah" and Nikki "Hey we never asked, what was the arcade like girls?"

"My opponents offered me no challenge at all." Azula said in a mildly dark and low voice.

"You sure they weren't just off their game a little bit?" Abner asked.

"Off their game a _**little**_ bit?! They were 10 year old boys playing like 5 year old girls!" Nikki said while holding back before breaking down laughing on the sand that was getting into her hair.

"You played against 10 year olds? Did you even go easy on them?" Abner asked, wondering how "Ilah" seemed to act as if they weren't 4 years younger than her and how she referred to them as "Opponents".

"Would you go easy on 10 year old boys that were so over-confident that they would say to your face "There is no way we're losing to a _**girl!"**_?"

Abner's eyes widened before he then said as if unbothered "Hmm, suppose I wouldn't." After hearing this, Nikki smiled as if surprised at her brother's comment "Don't be so modest Abner, of course you wouldn't! You'd do anything to hold on to your title."

"What title's that?" Ty lee asked enthusiastically. Balto answered for Abner, who seemed too embarressed to say "Abner is the Ember Island Street Bender champion. He has never once lost against anyone."

"It's also the one game he won't let me win. And I'm his sister." Nikki added.

"HEY! You're the Ember Island Pai Sho champion and you don't let **me** win against you and I'm your brother!"

Nikki's eyes narrowed nearly thin as thread as she spoke in a dark, almost pouty-looking voice "Don't choo steal my thunder." Azula thought _"Uncle Fatso would definetly love this about her... she might even win against him if she's as good as she sounds."_ Nikki then went from seemingly annoyed to happy "Buuut I suppose it is true."

"Awww, I'm remembering the first time you ever played Pai Sho Nikkita... and also how hard you kicked all six butts of Balto's cousins!" Tegs said with dreamy eyes and a big smile as he gazed into the horizon. Nikki and Balto laughed at this, which caused Ty lee to ask "Sounds like a funny story."

"Oh, it is" Abner said continuing the story "Balto's six cousins use to be the undefeatable Pai Sho champions. But when they introduced it to my brilliant little sister who was 11 at the time," (Nikki cheekily swats her hand downwards to Abner while looking away from him) "...Nikki figured out that they didn't exactly explain _**all**_ the rules, which is why they always won. This resulted in Nikki beating all six of them at their own game in fair and square terms and from that day on, becoming the new Pai Sho champion."

After hearing the story, Ty lee then went "Hmph, that's kinda like a love story."

Nikki jokingly replied "Yeah, without a boy in it... And if you think that's a cute story, you should hear about how Abner won his first game of Street Bender."

Azula smiled at this "Lets hear it then." _"Why am I smiling at wanting to hear this story?"_

Tegs told the story "About 6 weeks ago while the 4 of us were at the arcade, we saw a crowd of kids around a new game. We went to investigate and we saw Chan and Ruon-jian besting anyone who challenged them at what they called "Supreme Street Bender"- which is basically 2 people controlling one character and one person controlling the other."

"Doesn't sound very fair." Ty lee said with a cute, sour look.

Balto continued after Ty lee's statement "It wasn't, but what was even more unfair is they threatened kids into betting that they would win when they knew they would lose. And they're already rich through their parents!"

Nikki continued the remainder of the story in what sounded like a posh accent "However, Abner saw this terrible injustice being committed and wasn't about to stand for it anymore considering that that he was already rivals with the pair since the fire academy. He proposed to play against both of them one on one and then a game of Supreme Street Bender; the stakes were if he won all 3 matches, they would return all the money they scammed off those who lost to them and if he lost one game, he would allow them to continue as well as having to do something publicly humiliating for them."

Tegs interrupted "And before you ask, we don't know what the publicly humiliating thing was; they never had to come up with something due to Abner kicking their butts in **all 3 matches!"**

Azula was really impressed by Abner's skill in the game, though kept her face mutual. She then asked him "Why did you have them fight you one on one and not just one game Supreme version?"

Abner had a big smug-looking smile on his face when he turned to "Ilah" and answered her question "I had a theory on why they invented a Supreme version of the game and it turns out I was right; on their own, they're absolutely pathetic at that game and everyone who was there didn't stop laughing at them for weeks."

"What do mean by pathetic?"

"They were not able to hit my charcater even once when they played against me on their own and I didn't even have to use that super move you can do by firebending into the rods."

Azula didn't realise at first that she gave a mild laugh until after she said "Wow, that does sound pathetic." _"Where did that laugh and that "Wow" come from? Was it actually from me? Why did I laugh at what he said?"_ Still, her face was mutual when she was in her thoughts. What brought her out of it was Ty lee's voice "Has anyone ever come close to defeating you?" Ty lee asked.

Abner raised his left index finger "One person has, her name's Tombi; she's a street kid and the second best Street Bender player. I'm the only person she has ever lost to. And not to brag, but I don't think anyone will ever defeat me."

" ** _I_** don't know about that Abner. I mean, Ilah might have a chance of defeating you and even claiming your title; she plays as good as you." Nikki said while gesturing to "Ilah" with her staff.

"Is that so?" he asked turning to face "Ilah", who replied with challenging confidence "No of course not... however you play, I play much better."

This caused everyone, daemons included, to raise their heads up with excited eyes. Iorek changed into a white dog and stood proud and tall next to Abner while keeping his eyes on "Ilah", appearing like he was about to start snarling. Abner then stood up and Iorek followed him as he casually walked up to Azula, who in turn stood up. Both had smug smiles on their faces. As Abner looked down on her, he said while keeping his smile and tone of voice simple "You take that back right now."

Azula now felt more in power than ever and loved the feeling "Make me take that back right now."

"Very well then... I have consecutively defeated 38 opponents in Street Bender, so if you can consecutively defeat 38, we shall have a showdown that will determine the best Street Bender player and also if you should take it back or not."

"Then I accept... I've already consecutively defeated _6_ opponents and playing against them wasn't even close to _**child's play**_." While saying this, Azula was secretly thinking that for some reason, she didn't enjoy winning against Nikki.

"Very well then." Abner then extended his left arm and held out his hand, waiting for "Ilah" to shake it. As Azula grabbed his hand with her left hand and shook it, she noticied that running along almost his entire arm was a thick long scar as red as Zuko's. When they pulled away, Abner saw that she was looking at it, but instead decided to say "Wow, you have a very firm handshake." Azula snapped back out of her fixed stare on Abner's arm and said "Oh, er... thanks." _"When have I ever stuttered like that before... or ever said "Thanks"?! WHAT IS GOING ON WITH ME TODAY?!"_

* * *

Azula then decided to go back to the arcade. Abner said to take someone with her as a scorekeeper/witness so he knew she wasn't cheating. She "asked" (more like commanded) Ty lee to come with her, who reluctantly went with her, but not without giving the 4 teens, mainly Balto, a big hug goodbye. Once at the arcade, several kids decided to challenge Azula. Not one of the 13 opponents (including Ty lee) could defeat her. During the first 4 battles, some kids who wanted to challenge her pig-chickened out due to her game face also being her war face. Ty lee looked at the bundle of kids who remained and they looked as if they were gonna pee their pants or skirts. Although, they were glad that she didn't force them to gamble any of their money. Despite having now defeated 19 opponents, Azula still couldn't seem to be able to shake off what she felt when making that bet with Abner in the first place. After getting to the half-way point, Azula decided to head back to Lo and Li's home as their tea would be ready by the time they got back. As they walked, Ty lee asked "So, what you think of Nikki, Abner, Tegs and.. Balto? Do you think they're like new friends to us by now?"

Azula thought it over. "Well... they seem friendly enough, but they did say they're not telling us everything. We should probably remain on-guard until they tell us everything we should know. But if anything, they seem more like new allies than new friends so far."

"Maybe so, but they're more open than last night. I mean, Balto really opened up to me. He may not be telling me the exact, but he is hinting at it and I trust him. Also, his aura feels very silver; it actually even feels close to white."

Azula really could not understand Ty lee being so positive about everything... or what she meant by her aura comment, but disregarded the aura part and asked "You only just met him last night along with the other 3, what makes you think you could trust him after only knowing him for 1 day?"

Azula looked at her friend, who was looking at her feet in a shy way and appeared to have light shades of pink showing on both her cheeks. "Well... Iiiiii... I kinda think I...like Balto."

Azula metaphorically paused, then sarcastically asked "What happened to needing 10 boyfriends at once?"

"Very funny, but I'm being serious! I mean, I feel like we really bonded very well since we have a lot in common; we grew up with 6 girls in our families, we feel like we need to stand out, Balto can even read auras like me!"

Azula then had a thought, but decided to stop this one. so, she sighed with an unbothered look "Whatever you say." As she went back to her thought, she went over Ty lee's words which could probably explain why she acted the way she did before with Abner. The 2 of them seemed to connect well as they apparantely both played very fiercely in Street Bender, they both appeared powerful and dominating and according to Nikki, Abner could also produce blue flames as well. _"Could it be that I... "like" Abner?"_ Azula continued thinking it over and then reached a conclusion _"No, it's probably because I bonded well with his sister. In Street Bender sense, he's supposed to be my enemy and I haven't seen him firebent blue flames... yes, it's because I bonded well with Nikki."_

* * *

Zuko and Mai continued walking and decided to go back to the shed-sized house they were staying in for six more days. When it was within her eyesight, Mai thought _"Ugh, six more days stuck in there."_ Once they were inside, Zuko heard what sounded like thunder "What's that? It sounds like thunder." he asked looking out the window, startled that there were no grey clouds outside. He then looked at Mai, who simply stared at him and then turned her head and pointed her raised hand to Lo and Li's bedroom, where the sound seemed to be originating from. All Zuko could could say was "Oh" as Mai lead him into their bedroom. Once inside, Mai said "I guess we can stay here as long as we're quiet, that a problem for you?"

Although he knew she was being sarcastic, Zuko answered anyway "No, it's a bit cooler in here than outside anyway." As they sat down on Mai's bed, Zuko noticed that she appeared more sad than emotionless, so he asked "Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, you just appear sad and worried and on-edge, what's going on?"

Mai quietly sighed "I just don't like these 4 teens and I'm not sure we should trust them. They have admitted that they're not telling us everything there is to know."

"Maybe they have their reasons for not telling us everything right away; it wasn't exactly easy for us to swallow in the fact that magic exists when Nikki lifted the sand up."

"That's another thing too" Mai said with strong concern "Zuko, this girl knows who you and Azula are; how it that even possible and what if Abner, Balto and Tegs actually _**do**_ know who you are as well and are just playing with us?!"

"Nikki said that she recognised me due to my scar and Azula due to her blue firebending... you have to admit it Mai, both seem like obvious giveaways of our identities..." He then touched his scar lightly "... _mine especially is_." he said, briefly remembering _that day._

Mai grabbed his wrist and pulled it back downwards, but didn't let go "And when have you seen Azula firebend since we came here?... because I haven't." At the mention of this, Zuko paused and thought as hard as he could, but he had to admit that Mai was right; he too hadn't seen Azula firebend even a little other than when she inadvertantly set the Kuai ball net on fire, though it was never blue due to her not properly bending the flames, so Nikki couldn't have got it from that occasion. "You do have a point, but there might have been a time where Azula did firebend and Nikki did see her do so."

Mai's voice remained low sounding, but she started to appear and sound more angry "Why are you defending Nikki every time I bring her up?! Aren't you even concerned a little bit?!"

"It's not like she's tried to hurt any of us and she seems like a nice person, even if she acts like a child and seems a bit annoying."

"A _**bit**_ annoying? She's seems absolutely obnoxious to me! How can you possibly say a _**bit**_ annoying?!"

"She might be getting on our nerves, but... it actually seems nicer than when **Azula** does; I don't think Nikki is trying to annoy us in a mean way, but more like in a fun, innocent way."

After he finished, what Mai asked next was the last question Zuko ever thought he'd hear Do you like Nikki?"

"WHAT?" Zuko asked with a shocked look on his face, almost as if he had seen the Kemurikage spirits. "You actually believe I like her the same way I like you?!"

"What is all" "this shouting for?" 2 croaky voices said that interrupted Mai and made the pair jump and spring into straight stances. They saw it was Lo and Li, both appeared cranky. Both then looked to their feet in shame and said "Sorry."

The elderly twins then asked them "Where are Azula and Ty lee?"

Zuko thought in his head of a not entirely false excuse as he didn't want to raise suspicions about the 4 teens he and the others had made friends with "They wanted to stay on the beach for longer and sunbathe. They'll be back around in time for tea."

The twins then said before leaving "Very well then." "We'll prepare tea now."

As if Lady Luck was on Zuko's side, Azula and Ty lee did indeed arrive just as Lo and Li had finished preparing tea. Afterwards, they remained inside and after tea, Azula and Ty lee discussed their seperate stories of the day. Zuko and Mai avoided what they discussed regarding Mai's apparant distrust of Nikki and just said they just walked about and then decided to come back to the beach house. Once it was dark and they were all feeling tired, they went to bed, thinking what crazy events would most likely happen tomorrow.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a forest above where Abner and Nikki's house was, Balto was walking into it and then stopped at a tree. After Ilah and Ty lee left, the 4 of them sunbathed until a breeze made it slightly chilly, so they retreated to the house. After they and their daemons had tea (some roast duck, komodo chicken and flaming fire flakes), they had a burp contest that Nikki and Tegs drawed at before getting their pyjamas on and going to sleep. After making sure they were all asleep, Balto had Jahar go in his bed as a decoy and then left to take care of a matter. After waiting for no longer than a minute, a seductive-sounding voice came to his ears from the shadows "Hi Balto."

Althouh he knew the voice was coming from his right, he didn't turn his head to face it; though he was a little surprised at who it was. He said in his low unspooked voice "Hello Darla." At the mention of Darla, a girl who looked slightly older than him walked out into the moonlight. She had short auburn hair with the left part tucked behind her ear and was strangely wearing a dark orange bikini top, a matching mid-length skirt and thin black sandals since there was a cold breeze in the air and the fact that it was night time didn't help. Balto was cold enough in his pyjamas. When he said nothing, Darla continued with her sny smile "You know, I was starting to think that that sun was never gonna set."

"I'm guessing that's why you came rather than Halfrek and Anyanka."

"Well, that's half the reason; the other half is they don't think you'd give them their pendants if they showed up."

"They're not wrong. But, I'm not giving them to you either. They can have one back."

Darla gave a sarcastically out-loud sigh "They need both pendants for this job; the first one is to restore the house, the second is to restore the furniture inside the house."

"That's definetly everything involved in both wishes?"

"Yes."

"Okay then. Answers still No."

Darla groaned, but then her mood suddenly changed to calm as she began circling around Balto "Very well then. I was not gonna tell you this, buuut Halfrek told me a very interesting story... involving you and a girl." Balto's face went from unbothered to startled. Darla saw this and continued "After Karm and Trish left with the boys, Hally went back to ask you one ore time and apparantly, her story suggests you're developing a little crush on one of those newbies. Now, what's her name? Ty lin? Ty lao?" Balto couldn't take the mocking anymore, so he ended it "Ty lee."

"Oh of course. You know, from what I've heard, she seems like a very sweet and nice girl... _and I bet **Drusilla** would **love** to meet her." _ At this, Balto tensed up with rage as he grabbed Darla and pinned her into the closest tree while breathing loudly **"DON'T. YOU. DARE THINK ABOUT DOING THAT!"** Despite his ferocity, it didn't seem to faze Darla even a little. She was actually excited by his angered face and tightened grip on both her shoulders "And you say you're nothing like your cousins."

Balto then let go and stepped back quickly "I'm **not.** "

"You continue to lie to yourself. I really do not get why you won't accept it." she said while lightly touching the silver bands on his wrists. He moved his arms away from her and answered "Because if I did, then I would definitely be like the six of you."

"Well then, getting back to the matter at hand, I am gonna propose a deal; if you give me both pendants, I will make sure that Halfrek and Anyanka only restore Chan's house and furniture and add nothing extra. I will also make sure that they and Karmel and Trish don't tell any of the 4 newbies the truth about you."

"What about you and Drusilla?"

"Well, this is where I'm gonna offer an extra part in your favour. Now me and Dru not being able to say anything is one of the options; the other is after Hally and Anya have granted Chan's wish, I will get them to give their pendants back to you. So, which is gonna be?"

"How could you possibly convince them to give me their pendants back?"

"I'll find a way. Plus, it would be apart of a deal and deal-making is their speciality."

"True... fine, the instant they have restored his house and everything in it, you have them send them back to me." Balto pulled out 2 pendants from his pocket and handed them to Darla, who put both of them around her neck. One was a flat circular ruby with a thick golden outline; the other was a flat rectangular sapphire with a thick silver outline. Then the two shook hands. Before she walked away, Darla said "Pleasure doing business with you cousin." As she walked away Balto called out to her "Darla!" She stopped and turned around. "I accept that our mothers are sisters; but I will never accept you or your sisters as family... and if any of you come near any of the newbies, **I WILL kill you all."**

Darla's eyes merely narrowed and her smile only grew in horizontal length as she walked back up to Balto and put a hand gently on his cheek _"I **strongly** doubt that." _ she whispered. The two then departed.

* * *

Balto was about to enter the house, but a presense on the other side of the door stopped him from entering. Luckily, it wasn't Darla or one of his other cousins, but he wasn't entirely happy on who it was. He opened the door, revealing the presense to be Nikki, who appeared unamused. Pekkala was on her shoulder as a black jaguar cub "Hey Balto. Where'd you go?"

Balto wasn't good at lying or faking a smile, but that didn't stop him from trying "It's nothing Nikki. Hey, come on, I'll take you to your bed." He went to pick Nikki up, but she stopped him "Balto, come on, talk to me, what happened?" Balto sighed, Nikki spoke again "If you don't tell me, I'll wake up Abner and Tegs, so either way, I'm hearing about it now."

"Okay you got me. I went to see Anyanka and Halfrek about what they said earlier today, but Darla came in their place. She said if I gave them their pendants back, she'll make sure that Halfrek and Anyanka only restore Chan's house and furniture and add nothing extra and she'll also make sure that I get both pendants back afterwards as well as making sure that they and Karmel and Trish don't tell Lee, Ilah, Ty lee or Mai what I am."

"But that means..."

"That Darla or Drusilla could tell them, yeah I know. But they don't come out in the day time, so we just need to make sure the 4 newbies are home before sundown. Look, I know it's risky, but if I had chosen that none of my cousins could tell them, Darla wouldn't convince them to give me their pendants back."

"I somehow think we're going to regret this decision." Nikki said with a worried look. Balto saw this and continued to fake his true feelings "I'm thinking so too, but for now, it seems we're in the clear. We'll tell Abner and Tegs tomorrow. Lets just go to sleep now." He then picked up Nikki by her waist. As he carried her, they hugged each other. As he lay her in her bed and pulled the covers up, Nikki asked out of the blue as she pulled Pekkala to her chest "Do you think it was wrong of me to tell 4 completely innocent teens something that could put their lives in danger?"

Balto paused at what Nikki said. He didn't want to lie to her nor upset her, so he told her "Maybe there were downsides to telling them... but there were also positive sides. For instance, I think this is the first time I have ever seen you being friends with girls. Never thought I'd see that." Nikki smiled at that "I guess I did. But, girls don't exactly act friendly to me. I mean after Chan and Ruon-jian insulted me when they first arrived, Ty lee asked me if I was okay. That was the first time ever a girl had asked me that."

"See, focus on the good aspects."

"Night Balto." Nikki said before shutting her eyes.

"Night Nikki. And I'm sure that whatever happens, we'll be able to deal with it."

* * *

Meanwhile, Darla had snuck into the back entrance of a butcher shop and grabbed 2 medium-sized packets of animal blood. Afterwards, she went back into the woods she had met Balto in. After coming out of it, she moved a fake boulder out of the way to reveal a sand-coloured hatch. She opened it and jumped into it, not touching the ground until 30 feet of falling. When she landed on her feet, she hardly even had to bend her legs to ease the break of the fall. She walked as if she hadn't jumped 30 feet downwards until she reached a metal door with a fire insignia engraved into it. She opened it via pressing the root of the fire, which unlocked the door. She opened it to a room with 7 other doors. Five of the doors had a small letter on it at the top. From left to right, the letters on the first five doors were A, H, T, K, D. Darla went up to the doors with A and H on them and knocked on them. Anyanka and Halfrek opened them and were glad to finally get their pendants back, but then their moods completely changed when told of Darla's deal with Balto. After recieving a door slam from both girls, Darla went into the room with the D on it. Inside it was a queen size canopy bed up against the wall in the centre of the room. On the bed was a feminine figure in a long pink dress with long black hair (some in a small topknot, some small strands dangling down her face) and pale white skin. Darla went on to the bed "Hey Dru."

"Darla?" came a slow sleepy child-like voice from girl who appeared the same age as Darla.

"Have you been sleeping?"

"No, I just started feeling dizzy."

"Awww, well I got you this, it should stop you feeling dizzy." Darla said handing her one of the blood packets, but Drusilla merely turned away from it.

"I don't want that, I want real blood."

"I know you do, but you know that Balto will just make angry death threats at us. They might be empty, but they're very mean."

"I'm lonely, I want a pet."

"Every pet that I get you _**dies**_ Drusilla!" Darla said in an irritated tone. Drusilla merely made noises as if she were a puppy in pain. Darla then went back to her more calmer tone and pulled her into a hug "I'm sorry Dru. You know I didn't mean to get mad. It's just very hard and incredibly exhausting to get one for you." Darla then paused at an idea and then got Drusilla to sit up "You know, now that I think about it, I might be able to get you a new pet. But, we need to wait another day to avoid suspicion."

"You mean it?" Drusilla asked with a smile which quickly disappeared when she asked "But what about Balto?"

"Don't you worry about Balto. Cos not only will this type of pet solve your lonely problem, **she'll** help Balto with accepting who he really is... _whether he wants to or not."_ Darla said, looking over to a cage in the corner of the room that had dried up blood stains on its floor and wall. Her forehead then scrunched up and her eyes changed colour as she viciously bit into the blood packet with sharp teeth.

* * *

After what happened to his house, Chan had spent the past night at Ruon-jian's house. He couldn't stop pacing; his parents were coming back from business in the capital tonight and their house and everything in it was completely destroyed... all because he invited those 4 newbies to his party and to make matters worse, he drove them directly to Nikki, Abner, Tegs and Balto. And now his only chance of not getting grounded for life wass for Darla to convince Balto to give Halfrek and Anyanka their pendants back, but time was beginning to run out. Then, both girls appeared in the room he was in; both looking angry "What's wrong?"

Anyanka spoke on the sister's behalf "Good news; we got both our pendants back. Bad news; the moment we've done this favour for you, we have to send them back to Balto!"

"Why do you have to do that?!" asked Ruon-jian as he came into the room.

"It was apart of the deal Darla made to get them back... and this had better be apart of some elaborate scheme to get them back for us permanently or I swear to Agni we will disown her!"

"Sorry about that, but if you don't mind?... cos my parents are gonna be back soon." Chan said. The girls sighed and then snapped their fingers. Then, they both said "Done" and in a puff of red smoke, the sisters vanished from the room entirely. Chan then went back to find his house restored to its former glry as if there had never even been a party in the first place. He then went to the basement and up to the orb held in the black hand, to which he spoke in too "It's Chan, why is nothing being done about the new kids on Ember Island?! They destroyed my house along with _them!"_

 ** _"DON'T_** _rush us!"_ came the menacing voice that made Chan back away in fear. "And relax. Since our last encounter with them, we're having most of our equipment upgraded to guarantee their capture and to avoid any problems that occurred the last time we faced them. We should be ready to strike in 3 days."

Chan sighed with hidden frustration "Fine."

* * *

 **And that concludes Day 2 on Ember Island. Now** **for that X'tra present:**

 **When it comes to creating OC's and other new characters, I find it easier to do so when you literally create them. I used Avatar Scene Maker to do so and some features are edited with Paint. You can look at them via typing my fanfiction alias into google, click on the "Smoke and Shadow part 2 non-spoiler thoughts" link, scroll down to where I commented on that page, click on my alias to go to my profile and finally, click on "Album" to view the images of the 4 main OC's, their different outfits, their daemons, Balto's cousins and the kids that have appeared so far in this fanfic. Future images will be added when new characters are introduced.**

 **This is to help with the part where Ty lee said Balto's aura was silver. Type in "How to read auras" and click on the third link from the top (Ty lee's aura is definitely pink)**

 **One more thing, sorry for taking so long. I've not been feeling very good since I'm doing really bad in college and I've been distracted by revision and homework. Future chapters will be a full day on Ember Island and I've started Chapter 24 now.**


	24. Chapter 24

**I know I've said this whenever I take so long to update (in this instance, 2 months), but sorry for taking so long. Thank you for your patience and Thank you to dannyalvian68 for favouriting and following this fanfic.**

 **For those who enjoyed the Korra episode "Operation Beifong", then I think you'll love this chapter very much (depending on which parts you liked about it).**

* * *

Chapter 24:

Nikki woke up to a purring sound and something soft being rubbed against her cheek. Pekkala was still in her jaguar cub form from the previous night and was rubbing her tiny head on Nikki's face until she opened her eyes. Nikki then realised Pekkala was on her chest and smiled as she gave her daemon a rough stroke on the head that resulted with some of her fur being spiked up. Pekkala then backed up a little and said "Do you have to mess up my fur every time I wake you up?"

"If you don't like it, why do you continue waking me up?" Nikki asked while rubbing her eyes and then stretching her arms, preparing to get ready for the day ahead. She then sassily remarked "Also, your head looks the same as it always does, maybe even slightly cuter."

Pekkala merely scoffed at her owner's remark, wondering how she didn't see that or the noogie coming and then changed into an adolescent-sized jaguar as she jumped off the bed and then licked her right paw and stroked her head to get the spiked-up fur on her head smooth again. Nikki then got up too and and grabbed her staff from underneath her bed before heading to the living room along with Pekkala. Her brother and 2 friends were all still in their pyjamas and were having sea soup and rice on the sofas while the daemons (all in big cat form) were having kimodo chicken and koi salmon. Pekkala joined Iorek, Pan and Jahar while Nikki announced "Morning" as she grabbed an apple from a fruit bowl on a short-heighted table and a bowl of sea soup and then proceeded to sit down next to Abner.

"Hey Nikki." the boys said in union. Nikki, after taking a bite from the apple, then looked at Balto with an uncomfortable look, which he understood and put his remaining sea soup to the side "Hey um, now that Nikki's up, I can tell you this: I went to see Anyanka and Halfrek about their pendants last night, but Darla came in their place."

Abner and Tegs stopped eating and put their breakfast aside. Abner then asked "Did she convince you to give her the pendants?"

Balto sighed and kept his eyes closed in shame "Yes... but it was apart of a deal; if I gave back both pendants, Darla would make certain that I would get them back after Anya and Hally used them to only fix Chan's house and furniture as well as making sure they and Karmel and Trish can't tell Lee, Ilah, Mai or Ty lee what I am. She's kept her word about the pendants though; when I woke up, they were around my neck."

Nikki saw that this discussion was making Balto uncomfortable and she understood why, so she raised her hand to signal Balto to stop talking while she continued the story "But the issue is that Darla or Drusilla could tell them, so we need to make sure that the 4 of them go home before sundown."

"Hang on, how do you know this Nikkita?" Tegs asked.

"I woke up after he left and I waited for him to come back. He then told me what happened, but we agreed to talk more about it in the morning with you guys."

"It was my suggestion to wait until this morning." Balto said before any argument of keeping important issues on hold could form. Abner then asked "Not to be pushy or anything Balto, but when are you gonna tell them?; seems like the longer you wait to say anything, the more they're gonna distrust us and the more you're going to regret that deal with Darla."

"I just need a bit more time... at least until tomorrow."

Tegs then came in "Look mate, we get it's a sensitive topic for you, but Abner's right; you should say something to them while there's still daylight outside and while no one has got hurt yet."

"I will tell them, honest to Agni, I will. But I haven't entirely kept it a secret; I hinted at it to Ty lee about it being a bad family matter... and I know it's not the same as telling the truth, but hinting is better than not saying anything at all."

Tegs, Abner and Nikki all looked at each other with weird looks, but they had to agree with what he said. Nikki then said to Abner and Tegs as all 4 daemons came over after finsihing breakfast "Also, Balto rarely even talks about anything relating to the topic, so I think we can agree that it's good he can open up about it." The boys then nodded, but then Pekkala said "Especially considering that he's in love." Everyone then turned to face her. "Hey, you're thinking it Nikki, I'm just saying it."

"Is this to get back at me for giving you a noogie?!" Nikki asked with disbelief.

"No it's because you're thinking it and it was gonna come up at some point." Pekkala answer sarcastically, to which Nikki sighed and then said "She is right, I mean come on Balto; you clearly like Ty lee and I think deep down, she really likes you in the same way."

"If you mean that we both like each other as friends, then I agree."

Everyone groaned at this. Tegs then said "Come on mate, it's the only explanation as to why you would finally open up. How can you seriously doubt it?"

"Well, it's not like we can be together: one, she and her friends are only staying for like 4 more days and two and most importantly, you know what would happen if I kissed her... at least if I actually love her... which I don't." Balto said, his voice sounding unconvincing during the last 2 statements. But his friends and their daemons all knew what he was talking about. Iorek then changed from a tiger to a dog and said "Ok, lets talk about something else; what are you planning to do today Nikki?"

"Good question Iorek!" Nikki said with fake innocence while the boys laughed quietly at Nikki's childish behaviour. Nikki then pointed out to Abner as he, she and the boys continued with breakfast "Hmmm, just remembered that bet you made with Ilah, so she's probably gonna go back to the arcade today... hey Abner, wanna make a bet with me?"

"What kind of bet Nikki?" Abner said not looking away from his food.

"One free, but small prank on Chan and Ruon-jian which isn't dangerous in any way... says Ilah will defeat the remaining number of opponents she needs to defeat in order to play against you today." Nikki said with a mockingly innocent smile and tone of voice. Abner then asked after putting his breakfast aside for a second time "What if you're wrong?"

"Then I guess I'll go a whole month with no fire flakes and I'll try acting like a regular girl for the rest of my natural life." Nikki stated with no hesitance or fear. Tegs' voice went low as he said "WOOOAH. You know she would never say that mate." Abner nodded "True... alright deal, I for one cannot wait to see a new and improved you Nikki."

"If that's your fancy yet ridiculous way of saying "I for one cannot wait to see the prank you pull off like a true prankbending master, then I'm glad you think that brother." Nikki said as the 4 teens and their daemons continued with their breakfast.

* * *

Azula woke up to day 3 on Ember Island with an urge to defeat the remaining number of opponents at Street Bender at the arcade, whic was 19. She had already defeated 19 opponents, so she was half-way to challenging Abner. She forced herself out of bed to have breakfast so she could go to the arcade sooner. As she got into the clothes she wore to the party, she decided to continue having her hair down to avoid the chance of anyone recognising her royal hairstyle. Everyone else was asleep and she decided she wanted some alone time as "Ilah" today. When she went into the main room, her firebending tutors were setting up breakfast on the hexagon table. They looked over to her and said "Azula, you're up early."

Azula had a straight face as she said "I couldn't stay in bed; I was hungry."

"Well, you're in time..." "...For breakfast."

Azula walked over to the table and sat down. She grabbed one of the six bowls of noodles and began eating, not bothering to wait for her brother or friends to wake up in what seemed like forever. As she ate, Azula recalled Abner talking about someone named Tombi. According to Abner, she was the one person who came close to defeating him in Street Bender, but failed. She sounded like a fierce opponent unlike the small children she had won against so far. Azula decided that she should probably play against Tombi as her final opponent before Abner. If Abner really was the best Street Bender player and Tombi came close to defeating him, then it would be best to make sure she'll be ready for any type of attack when facing him.

Azula was then pulled from her thoughts when she looked up and saw Zuko, Mai and Ty lee coming to the table. _"Finally, they're awake."_ Ty lee bounced down next to Azula with her bubbly smile "Wow! You were up really early Azula."

"Firebenders **_do_** rise with the sun Ty lee."

Azula then looked up to Zuko and said "Well, with a few exceptions, right Zuzu?" Zuko didn't respond to her question nor her insult and focused more on his breakfast. Azula then looked at Mai. She and Zuko appeared more quiet than usual and they seemed to be ignoring each other, focusing more on their food instead of their strange boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. Lo and Li finally joined the teenagers and they all sat in silence as they ate. Azula's eyes were still focused on her brother and friend. They weren't even giving minor glances at one another to see if the other was looking at them. Ty lee felt both of their auras flowing with negative blue inside them and decided not to say anything due to the awkward silence. Lo and Li finshed eating and as they stood up, they clapped their hands twice, pulled their casual clothes down to reveal their bathing suits. This time wasn't so bad as the 4 fire teens were distracted by breakfast to hear the clapping and therefore, didn't look upwards. Although, the twins caught their attention when they said "SEE YOU ON THE BEACH KIDS!" When they looked up, it seemed as if the twins had more wrinkles than before on various regions of their bodies. After the twins left, the teens couldn't seem to move; other than Azula's face scrunching up, Ty lee looking mortified with fearful eyes, Zuko turning his head and placing a hand on his cheek to cover his bashful blushing and Mai just looking at where they were and then putting her chopsticks down slowly while looking down at her lap with similar bashfulness to Zuko. After a few more moments of awkward silence, Mai finally broke it "I'll just say it, that was not something we should've seen." Everyone gave quick nods in agreement to this.

Azula then asked what she wanted to ask (and now also to further take their minds off _that_ image) "So Zuzu, why are you and Mai going to great lengths to ignore each other?

"None of your business Azula... and don't call me that."

Azula's face scrunched up again at a thought in her head "OH, you two haven't broken up again have you?"

"No we did not." Mai answered whlie keeping her eyes on her food. Azula then sighed "Okay, what's going on with you two? You're being more angsty than usual little brother and you're being more silent than usual Mai."

"Also, your auras have a lot of blue flowing through them right now."

Mai finally looked away from her food and up to her friend as she said "I still don't believe in auras Ty lee."

"We don't even know what that means!" Zuko said to the acrobat's face. She pulled her head back slightly and looked away from the fire prince. Once he went back to his noodles, Ty lee continued eating her breakfast, only slower than before. Azula would have stuck around for longer and push further to find out what was going on between Mai and Zuko, but she'd be wasting daylight, so she said "Fine, we'll leave this until later, but I for one will be expecting answers about this when later comes." She then got up, went back to the bedroom, grabbed 19 silver pieces from the bag of silvers she'd "won" as well as a small handful of gold pieces she had, placed them a a small bag that went into a pocket in her skirt and began her walk to the arcade.

* * *

While Azula went to face more Street Bender challengers, Ty lee also got up after finishing her breakfast and headed for Abner and Nikki's house, partially to give Mai and Zuko some alone time to resolve whatever issue they currently had, but mainly to see Balto. As she walked across the over-crowded beach, she wondered if she really did like Balto the way she thought she did yesterday when talking with Azula. The princess' question came to the acrobat's mind ** _"What happened to needing 10 boyfriends at once?"_** It may have been a sarcastic question, but it wasn't entirely wrong. Ty lee recalled loving so much attention from the boys that fawned over her when she was younger. When she finished school and walked home, nearly every boy around her age that she walked past always tried to impress her by carrying her bag or giving her gifts ranging from poetry to compliments to flowers. Balto was different; he seemed to like her, but he didn't try to impress her in any kind of sense. All he did was talk to her, discuss his life rather than what he liked about her, take an interest in her life rather than her beauty, actually get to know about her rather than follow what her admirers did like a flock ofkoala sheep... Ty lee then remembered something else Azula had said: at the party on their first night on Ember Island... _**"Those boys only like you because you make it so easy for them! You're not a challenge, you're a tease. It's not like they actually care who you are."**_ The princess claimed to have said those words out of jealousy and Ty lee believed her. But once again, she wasn't entirely wrong. The 5 boys that had had their eyes on her didn't even introduce themselves to her... in fact, now that she thought about it, she didn't introduce herself to them, they probably only learnt her name when Azula called her over to play Kuai ball. As she was exiting the occupied beach area, she heard her name being shouted from behind her by more than one voice "Ty lee!" She recognised those voices and wasn't happy on who they belonged to. She kept on walking without turning around, hoping they thought she was out of hearing range, but the voices got louder which could only mean they were coming closer. Finally, a hand on her shoulder stopped her. She turned around to see it was Shade boy and her 4 other admirers Muscle, Pagoda, Silent and The Guy Who Resembles That Kinda Cute Guy With The Avatar.

"Hey!" They all said, all trying to say it before the others with big smiles. Ty lee didn't want to be too harsh on them when she told them the truth, so she smiled nervously as she said "Heeeeey... um... what are you doing here?"

"We've kinda been looking for you since after you... crashed the party with your friends." Pagoda answered.

"Yeah, we realised that we shouldn't have come on to you like we did at the party." Muscle said.

Ty lee felt relieved at this "Well that's good!" _"Maybe this won't be so ugly after all."_

"So we decided that you just need to pick one of us to be with now so the other 4 can move on with their lives." The Guy Who Resembles That Kinda Cute Guy With The Avatar said, which sunk Ty lee's happiness worse than any known historical shipwreck in the fire nation. She figured there was only one way to end this "Look don't take this the wrong way, but I don't want to be with... any of you."

They all looked at each other with surprised and irritated looks, then they looked at Ty lee and all said _"What?"_ Their voices and facial expressions worried the acrobat. She realised that she kinda "used" them and that wasn't right of her to do so, but now she was getting scared and she didn't want to chi block them again. She felt bad enough the first time she did. She did her best to keep calm and reason with them "Look I'll admit it; I shouldn't have led you all on like that, but... well..." she was losing words and the 5 of them walking towards her with angered faces wasn't helping. The boy Ty lee had dubbed Silent came up to her and shoved her down to the sand. The others then stood in a circle around her head when Silent shouted in a surprisingly deep and loud voice at her "You can't just do something like that after making us wait on you like we're your servants!" Now Ty lee was too terrified to try chi blocking them or even try to get up. All she could do was stare upwards in fear with her big fearful eyes.

 **"HEY!"** came a voice that sounded deeper than and more scarier than Silent's voice. The boys turned their heads to see where the voice had originated from. Ty lee couldn't see who it was as Muscle's and Pagoda's legs were blocking her view. The boys then started laughing at the figure. Shade then shouted in his whiny voice at the figure "Hey _Bingo_!"

"My name. Is _**Balto."**_ At the mention of the name, Ty lee felt slight happiness to know her friend was here. The boys moved into a group form and Ty lee took the opportunity to get up and back away. She then saw the five boys walked over to Balto all smugly and form a circle around him. All he did was stand there, the only movement he made was turning his head to face where the other boys were. Muscle was in front of him. Compared to him, Balto appeared small and weak. Muscle said "Huh, what are you doing here?"

Balto's dark expression changed to look like Mai's face, as did his voice "Seems like I'm stopping you from doing whatever it is the five of you were planning to do with my friend over there." he said gesturing to the acrobat. He then looked up at Muscle with a confused look. This made Muscle smirk "What are you doing now you weirdo?"

The Guy Who Resembles That Kinda Cute Guy With The Avatar was at Balto's left; he looked at Balto's face and then said "Ooh, maybe he's trying to look like a weirdo as well as sound like one!"

"Pft HA!" Pagoda laughed. But Balto then shook his head and said to Muscle "Nah, I'm just pondering over who I'm gonna punch in the face first aaaaand it seems like it's gonna be you **Chump.** " Before Muscle could react, Balto brought up a fast punch to his face that knocked him down on his back. As he covered the punched area with his hand, the other 4 boys tried to hit Balto, but he ducked and jumped upwards and back-flipped over them. Ty lee couldn't help but excite over his acrobatics that were similar to hers and became even more fascinated when he landed and jabbed his index and middle finger into the back of the necks of Silent and Pagoda that caused them both to collapse face down into the sand. Ty lee couldn't believe her eyes. Balto was a chi blocker just like her! Shade started shaking nervously as he saw Pagoda and Silent fall down and when he looked behind him and saw Muscle scramble to get up and run away from the fight while still covering his face. He then saw a stick in the sand, so he picked it up and charged at Balto **"AAAARRRGGHH!"** As he swung it however, Balto raised his arm to block the stick and it instead hit the silver band on his wrist. He eyebrows then lowered as he stared at Shade, who then dropped the stick and ran away screaming while waving his arms about in the air as if he had just had Cactus Juice. The Guy Who Resembles That Kinda Cute Guy With The Avatar didn't bother attacking Balto and followed Shade's lead without the ridiculous arm waving that made Ty lee giggle. Balto ran over to Ty lee and asked "You okay?"

"Thanks to you I am." Ty lee couldn't stop smiling at Balto. He then asked "How come your smile's bigger than usual?"

"You're an acrobat and a chi-blocker!"

Balto gave a shrug "Yeah, so?"

"I'm an acrobat and a chi-blocker too!"

Balto's eyes then brightened up "You're kidding, right?"

"No! Acrobatics was my act in the circus."

"Well, it's good to know we have something in common that's not a bit depressing."

As Ty lee laughed, a maroon horse gallop towards them. Ty lee saw that up-close, its eyes were the same beautiful blue as Balto's eyes and she guessed that it was Jahar. It was confirmed when Balto said "Where exactly were you 5 minutes ago Jahar?! I could've used your help!"

"If I didn't think you could handle 5 idiots, I would've joined in."

Balto rolled his eyes as he got on Jahar's back and extended a hand to the other acrobat "Wanna get on?"

Ty lee smiled "Sure!" She grabbed his hand and he hoisted her up on to Jahar's back. She then grabbed Balto's waist and Jahar set off.

* * *

Meanwhile, Zuko and Mai were still having breakfast and were still not talking. Once certain that they were utterly and completely alone, Zuko asked Mai "Do you want to talk about it now that we're alone?"

Mai sighed in frustration "Do _you_ want to talk about it?"

Zuko sighed, knowing that she didn't and even if they did, they would probably fight and maybe even break up again. Being around each other didn't seem to be helping, so Zuko decided to leave so they could both have some space "Fine... I'm going for a walk." He got up, not bothering to finish his remaining noodles, and left without saying another word. Once he had walked outside, he punched a rather large fireball into the air **HAAAARRRGGGGHH!"** He couldn't handle any of this. He was annoyed enough that the avatar was possibly alive, his uncle was in prison and although his father finally seemed to be accepting him as his son and the crown prince, he didn't feel happy like he thought he would during his 3 year banishment. He instead felt more angry than ever and couldn't figure out why and all it apparantely took to set him off was relationship problems with Mai. He then thought that this wasn't helpful and that if his anger continued, then they might break up again, so he needed a new way of feeling even just a little happy. After breathing in and out, he tried to think back to when he was even a little happy in the hopes that that could help.

* * *

 _Flashback:_

 _Zuko was 1 and a half years old. He had been with his uncle Iroh and cousin Lu Ten on the beach all day and he was now being carried by his mother to his room in their summer house. He had come to Ember Island for the first time with his family and today was their last day before they were heading back home to the capital and he had had the most fun that day. He, his uncle and cousin built what seemed like the most indestructable sand castle while his parents spent some "alone time" together, according to his father. When his mother came on the beach, he ran up to her as fast as he could and jumped into her open arms. She then carried him back and sat him down on the floor near a window "How was your day with uncle Iroh and cousin Lu Ten Zuko?"_

 _"Awwesome. We made the best sand casal ever! It looks like home."_

 _His mother smiled "I'm sure it did Zuko. As you know, it's sadly our last day here." Zuko frowned and said lowly "Don't wanna go."_

 _"I know Zuko, but I know a way you'll be able to hold on to these memories of your first time here."_

 _Zuko looked puzzled "How?" He saw his mother get up and grab something round and flat from the top of a draw. When she showed it to him, he saw that it was a round, flat container with something mushy and grey inside it."What dat mommy?" he asked pointing not very accurately at the grey mush._

 _"It's a special kind of clay Zuko. What you do is place your hand in it and then the clay dries up leaving your handprint in it. That way when you're older and you look at it, you'll be able to remember all these happy moments from when you first came here, just in case you feel down."_

 _ **"Woooah."**_ _was all Zuko could say at this._

 _"Which hand do you want it to be my love? The left? Or the right?" Ursa asked. Zuko looked at the front and back sides of both his hands. He then held his right hand up and said "This one!"_

 _"The right one it is then, I think that's the right choice too." Ursa said, which caused her son to giggle his babyish giggle. She then helped him place his right hand into the clay and keep it still as he was still laughing at her little joke. After 10 seconds, she carefully pulled it out so the handprint wouldn't be messed up and the set it back on to the top of the draw she got it from. Zuko then yawned and rubbed at his eyes. His mother then picked him up and tucked him in bed. She then said just above whisper "That clay should be dry by tomorrow." She then gave him a kiss and then said "Zuko, there's something I want you to know... something's going to happen in about 9 months from now."_

 _"What isit mommy?" Zuko asked half-awake._

 _"You're going to be a big brother."_

* * *

Zuko remembered his mother's word. Maybe seeing the plaster cast would help him. He headed over to his old family summer house. On the way there, he saw the hills he used to run across with Azula running behind him. After their reenactment caused them to "take a tumble (down a hill)", their father came with them to ensure their safety. As he continued walking, Zuko also recalled one time when Azula was sick, so just he and his father went for a walk and when they stopped to try and see the capital, his father placed his hand on his shoulder without saying a word, which made him smile.

He then saw their old summer house and walked up the steps. He tried to open it, but it was locked. With one kick, the doors opened and a scream came from inside the house. As Zuko rushed in, he saw a girl on the ground with different-coloured vials, a cauldron and a book as well as a stick-like staff in her hand and a black jaguar with white rosettes that at first was in an about-to-pounce stance, but then softened up when she saw him. All Zuko could say once he was certain on who it was was "Nikki?"

* * *

Mai was left alone in the house, just sitting at the table, not even attempting to eat anything after Zuko left her alone. She let out a loud sigh when she heard her boyfriend letting out more of his unexplainable rage. She and Zuko had already broke up once; she didn't want to do so again, but she couldn't help but think that he might be interested in Nikki in a romantic way. Why else would he defend Nikki, who somehow knew who he and Azula were; and what if she was leading them into some kind of trap or danger? Abner had said that Nikki exaggerates when she says stuff about her childhood such as her parents not paying atention to her for an entire decade and keeping her in her bedroom the whole time. Mai thought there was no way any parent could be that heartless to their own child. Mai also thought about her parents and how although they set her strict rules as a child, they still loved her. She decided to talk to Zuko, but when she went outside, he was nowhere in sight. She figured she should go look for him before he got himself into trouble. She headed for Abner and Nikki's house to see if he went there.

* * *

Azula was enjoying herself at the arcade and reveling in the victories she was achieving. 14 new opponents challenged her to Street Bender and all 14 failed to defeat her. Now, she just had to find 4 more opponents and then go look for Tombi. Before she could look for more opponents as her previous ones walked away, she felt a pair of hands grabbing her arms hard and a low voice saying _**"Don't. Say. Anything."**_ She recognised it as Xahira's voice and the hands forced her to walk away from the game and behind the "Hook A Turtleduck" stall. Behind the stall were Leong, Amira and Faida who all had cross expressions and arms folded. The princess could easily escape, but it would attract too much attention that could get her either recognised or into trouble. Leong then spoke "You give us back those 100 silvers now."

Azula simply smiled her casual smile and saying sarcastically "Hello, nice to see you all again too." After that, Xahira grabbed Azula's shoulders and shoved her back into the stall "Quit stalling and just give them back!"

"I _can't._ I've spent most of it already. And even if I still had it, why would I give back money that I won fair and square? Is it really that hard for all of you to except defeat?"

Xahira then told the princess "No. It's because you _didn't_ win fair and square. That move you pulled on us at the end is the same move Nikki used. She taught you her tactic and then you split your winnings with her."

Azula was impressed at Xahira's skills in physical strength, itimidation and puzzle-solving. It seemed identical to hers. She decided she wouldn't be able to lie, but that didn't mean she'd let go of her smile "Okay fine, I did. But I've only done something like this one time, unlike the 4 of you who have pulled off scamming on more than enough people."

"It's called "Making a living"; it's what we do to survive." Faida said rather sincerely. "We don't exactly have a proper home and we only do this so we won't be dining out of people's food bins."

"What about all those other bags you had with you; I counted about 28 of them." Azula said with disbelief on their apparant over-reaction.

"Nearly every one of them have copper pieces in them, which no one wants to waste counting; only a few have silver and it is literally a miracle if we get gold pieces." Leong said while looking downwards with humility.

Azula saw the truth in their eyes but this was no exception to those who thought they could threaten Princess Azula in disguise and get away with it. Then, an idea hit her. She needed to both punish these 4 teenagers and defeat 4 more opponents before challenging Tombi. _"Why not do both at the same time?"_ And after that, she'd need help finding her. _"Perhaps they'd help for a price."_ Azula then lowered her facial expression, but not her wits nor her cautiouness "Lets suppose for the sake of argument you're telling the truth. I'm not going to give back that money that you say I owe you because I don't believe that, but how about a deal?"

"What kind of deal?" Amira asked while Leong raised his head and Xahira let go of Azula's shoulders.

"Those 100 silver coins me and Nikki "won", I'm using my share to play this game called Street Bender. If one of you can defeat me in it, I'll find a way to get you back the money you say I owe you and if you don't win against me, you'll let this go with both me and Nikki. Sound fair?"

The 4 of them pondered over this. Leong answered for the group "Alright then, you have a deal Ilah." His voice had confidence in it when he spoke this. Azula shook his hand while thinking _"They are NOT going to like me after this... and who knows, they might at least be more of a challenge."_ As they walked back to the game, Azula saw that the first to chalenge her was Leong. As they placed silver pieces into the coin slots, she heard Amira quietly asking her 2 friends "Are we certain this is a good idea? What if we all lose?"

Xahira smiled and said in a calm, happy voice "Huh. Don't worry. There is **_no_** way all 4 of us will lose."

* * *

 **Less than 10 minutes later:**

* * *

"HOW COULD ALL 4 OF US LOSE?!" Xahira exclaimed. In less than 10 minutes, she, Leong, Faida and Amira lost to Azula, who wanted to celebrate her victories, but decided to put that on hold until after she defeated Abner. On the bright side, they were more challenging than the little kids who played against her and she could proceed with the final phase. She saw they were masking how upset they were with anger and a hint a sulkiness. She then grabbed the bag with her handful of gold pieces in them. The 4 dissapointed teens looked up. Amira asked "What's that?"

"A bag of a handful of gold coins. If you help me with something, then they're yours."

"You are bluffing, right?" Faida asked.

"See for yourself." She said as she tossed the bag over to Faida. She opened it up and gazed in with surprise. Leong then asked with an annoyed voice "Hang on, if you had gold pieces, you could've just exchanged them for silvers with us!"

"I could've had, but there was an incredibly high chance you would've used your powers of persuasion to persuade me to play that shell shuffle game and waste all my gold coins, thus making you even more rich than you were before."

Leong just stared as her as if all the talking she had done had driven him stupid, but then he stare went dull as he said "Hmm, suppose we would've done. So what is it you need help with?"

"Do any of you know someone named Tombi and if so, do you know where I could find her?" Azula noticied at the mention of the girl's name, Xahira's usually-hard-staring eyes seemed to glimmer and soften up, but the rest of her face remained the same. To the princess, this indicated she knew this person, but didn't have a good relationship with her and didn't want to talk about the matter. Faida said after Azula's question "Yeah, we know Tombi."

 _"Xan especially."_ Leong mumbled with a smile.

Xahira snapped her head round to face Leong with a fierce glare "Shut up _**Ong.**_ "

 _"Hey! Keep your voice down **Xahira**_." The 2 then stared at each other with as much ferocity as they could muster. Amira awkwardly came between the two apparant leaders of the 4 and separated them "Okay, lets get back to helping Ilah out and then you two can go back to your staring contest, alright?" she asked with a nervous smile.

"Forget it, I'm not helping ya find Tombi." Xan said to Azula. Before the princess could complain and demand her money back, Faida said "Come on Xan, you know where she hangs out and I doubt she'll listen to us." After a pause, Faida continued in a lower voice "And Leong isn't wrong... you do know Tombi better than anyone."

"I said FOR. GET. IT!"

Azula could see that Xan wasn't going to drop her stubborness for nothing, not even her friend's request moved her a little. Azula decided only one thing might make her reconsider. She walked up to Faida and snatched the bag of gold coins out of her hand. As the 4 watched her, she emptied the coins out into her hand and counted how many there were in her head. She looked up from her palm once certain and said "There are 12 gold coins in my hand right now; help me and it'll become 24; do that and answer any questions I have and it'll become 36."

Xan appeared interested, but as the princess placed them back in the bag, Xan walked up to her and shoved her into a support beam and kept a grip on her shoulders "Just how rich are you Ilah?"

Azula's eyes narrowed; this was the second time this girl had shoved her and she wasn't going to let it slide. She grabbed Xan's wrists and pulled them away and spoke in a low voice to Xan "Here are three things you need to know _**Xahira**_ ; I'm richer than the 4 of you combined, if you knew what my social status was, you would not be shoving me into arcade stalls and support beams... and when comes to threatening people, I do it much better than you."

Xan's kept her face perfectly still, but her eyes once again betrayed her; they always seemed to glimmer in a way if she was afraid. Azula thught she had a right to know that "Also, your eyes glimmer when you're afraid... like how they're doing right now... and it is really good to know you fear me... because you should."

Leong, Faida and Amira all looked at each other with puzzled face, but Xan's face remained unthreatened, but her eyes glimmered once again. The street kid then said "I have no idea what you're talking about." After a narrowed stare at "Ilah", she then hesitated as she said "But fine; I'll help you and we'll answer any questions you have for 36 gold pieces."

"Glad to know, but I need to be certain... you and Leong, why do seem to hate your names?"

Xan sighed quietly "I think "Xan's" more threat-sounding than "Xahira" and that's what I aim for people to view me as."

Azula then turned to Leong, who said "Ugh okay, my real name sadly is _Ong._ I slightly changed it because... well come on! What kid wants to be called Ong?! It sounds stupid."

Azula's thought about it and actually agreed "Yeah now that I think about it, it does sound stupid."

"Also, it sounds like a name for an air nomad with no sense of humour." Amira said. All eyes turned to her. She then said "I overheard the Ember Island Players were doing a play about the Avatar that the Fire Nation was after and from what I heard, he had a sense of humour."

"Alright, one more thing, and it would probably have come up anyway... why didn't you want to find Tombi in the first place?"

Xahira was quiet, almost as if she couldn't talk. She didn't say anything. All she did was turn to Faida and motion to "Ilah" with her head. Then, she started walking off, still refusing to talk. While Amira and Leong followed her, Faida walked up to "Ilah" and said closely to her ear "Tombi is Xan's...

ex."

* * *

"What are you doing in here Nikki?! And how did you get in here?!" Zuko shouted as he came inside. Nikki almost appeared as petrified as she was when Zuko unlocked the front door with one kick. Her voice sounded nervous and regretful "Sorry, it's just... well... you-you know how I can do magic?"

"I do." Zuko said, still annoyed at someone tresspassing in his family's beach house.

"Well, I found this cave when I was a bit younger and it had all this stuff and more inside it." She said while gesturing to the mini cauldron on a tripod, the different-shaped vials with various coloured liquids inside them and the large book that appeared rather big and heavy. "And I thought it would be better to hide this somewhere no one would go in case the cave was discovered. And... well... no one exactly comes here." Zuko's anger lowered when he heard this. She wasn't wrong. After his cousin Lu Ten's passing and his mother's disappearance, his family stopped coming to Ember Island. His uncle was in mourning and his father was busy ruling over an entire nation. Nikki then stood up with her staff in hand and walked up to Zuko "Look, I only come in here just to practise some spells and potions in that book over there and I've only been in this room; I promise I don't go into the other rooms when I come here."

"Seriously? You don't? You're... not curious?"

"Oh I am curious and I might be trespassing, but I'm nice enough to respect the owner's boundaries by only going in one room."

Zuko smiled at this "You're probably the nicest trespasser I've ever met."

"Awww, that's sweet of you." Nikki said with a big smile. She then asked "So I know this is your house but, how come you've come here?"

"There's something in here I need to see." Zuko said as he went up to a roll-top desk and saw what he was looking for on top of it. He picked up the plaster cast with his left hand and slowly placed his right hand over his 1 and a half year old handprint, recalling his happy memories like mother said. But this just made him feel worse. A voice pulled him out of his thoughts as he took his hand off the cast "Hey, what's up?" Zuko looked to see Nikki looking at him with worry and concern. He didn't want to talk to her, so he shook his head and said "Nothing."

"No come on, what is it?" Nikki asked as she lightly grabbed his arm, but he still didn't want to talk. Her eyes then drifted to the cast in his hand and she asked him with a small smile "Can I ask what that is?"

"Here." was all Zuko said as he handed the cast to her. She looked at it with wonder and lightly pressed the outlines of the handprint with her 3 middle fingers. Zuko saw her expression and didn't think she would be this fascinated by it "Is this your handprint?"

"Yeah it is." Zuko stated. He didn't realise it at first, but a small smile of his own was beginning to form at Nikki's apparant interest to him. She then asked "How old were you when this was done? It's really small compared to your hand now."

"I was slightly younger than 2 years old."

 **"Woooah."** was all that came out of Nikki's mouth as she continued to look at it, her fascination unchanged. Zuko remembered that he had said the same thing when his mother told him how he could recall his first time on Ember Island by simply looking at the handprint. He had to ask her "How come you're so fascinated with it?"

"Well... I don't know. I just get that way sometimes with certain objects. Is this special to you?" Zuko did find it special in a away, but he still wasn't interested in saying anything. He figured even though he trusted Nikki and her friends, he could at least listen to Mai's warning and not be too open. So he looked downwards. Nikki saw he wouldn't open up so easy, so when Pekkala in phoenix bird form brought over Nikki's poncho to her and then landed on her shoulder, Nikki proposed something "How about if you tell me why that plaster cast is special to you, I'll tell you why this is special to me. Sound fair?"

Zuko thought about this offer and if she was gonna open up about something in return, then he didn't see any harm in telling her "That does sound fair. Aright I'll tell you; It is special in a way. It was done when I first came to Ember Island with my family. On our last day, I had so much fun and I didn't want to leave. My mother told me that I could remember my first time here by making a handprint in this clay and then just looking at it when I was older would bring back the memories. And after I made the print in the clay, my mother told me I was gonna be a brother."

"Really? Wow." Nikki said further fascinated. But then, realisation hit her "Oh, I'm guessing when you looked at it, it didn't help like you thought it would."

"It made me remember, but it's just... those summers I spent here seem so... long ago. And so much has changed." Zuko said sitting down, looking as if he was about to cry. Nikki sat down in front of him with Pekkala changing from phoenix to mouse. Nikki then gently put her hand on his shoulder and said once he looked up to her "I'm sorry you feel that way Zuko." Zuko placed his hand over hers and gave her a small smile "Thanks Nikki." Nikki smiled brightly at him.

"Okay now that I've told you that, you tell me why that's important to you." Zuko said while pointing at the tattered purple poncho in Nikki's hand. Nikki, still with a smile, sighed and took her hand off Zuko's shoulder "Sure thing, but just to warn you, it's kind of a long story, so brace yourself... first of all, this wasn't always a poncho. It used to be my baby blanket."

Zuko clearly wasn't expecting to hear that. Nikki continued her story "When I was born, I was born crying and my eyes were closed. Apparantly, I didn't stop no matter how much my parents tried to get me to stop. They spent 3 hours in vain trying. They eventually gave me to my brother and he took me outside along with Tegs and Balto. There was a cold breeze outside that made me open my eyes and I was looking upwards to the full moon. And I just stopped crying. The 3 of them then took me on the beach and this cloaked figure with a bag of cloaks came up to them. It was definetly a woman as she had a female voice and when she saw me, she gave them one of the cloaks in her bag to keep me warm. She then left and Tegs wrapped me up in it and I seemed to fall asleep instantly."

Zuko thought that to be an interesting story, but it didn't answer his question "But... how exactly is it important to you?"

Nikki held it up to Zuko with both hands grasping it tightly "This is the only present I've ever recieved off a grown up. My parents ignored me for 10 years and they tried getting rid of it, but I always took it back and hid it. This woman was a complete stranger and she didn't even know me... and she gave me a present. Maybe it was just because I was a baby and she wanted to help my brother and his friends, but it's more than anything my parents did for me... and the only thing they did was just give birth to me."

"Is that really what happened in your childhood?" Zuko asked with disbelief.

Nikki then looked at Zuko with a mad look before saying "Abner told you that I over-exaggerate about my childhood mainly regarding my parents, didn't he?"

Zuko was in shock that she knew the exact detail. He didn't even have to answer as the surprised look on his face spoke volumes. "He did say that."

"When I talk about _anything_ that relates to my parents, I assure you that I do not. _lie_."

"But why would Abner say you exaggerate about your childhood?"

"I don't exactly tell him everything that happened because well... my parents may not have loved me, but they loved him. Treated him like he was the next Firelord. Practically gave him anything he wanted. But they weren't honest with him when he asked about me. Before they left for buisness in the Capital 5 years ago, I fell ill with a fever that was worse than usual due to my current illness... and my parents said Goodbye to Abner, but they lied to him about saying Goodbye to me."

"That's... horrible." Zuko said with a look mixed with sadness and shock when he thought about Nikki's childhood. Nikki didn't seem like she was exaggerating, but it seemed too unbelievable. She saw that the prince still didn't believe her, which is why after she put the caludron, vials and book in a cabinet, she asked him "Do you want to see proof of my story? Think that will give you closure?"

Zuko didn't want to see proof of something so terrible and upsetting, but if Nikki really did have proof, it would put his mind at rest with this issue "Alright then."

"Okay, lets go."

"Where to?"

Pekkala flew off Nikki's shoulder and changed back into a jaguar and as Nikki started walking back to the cabinet, Pekkala said "Our house. There's a tunnel we made to get in and out of here via under the floorboards near that cabinet."

"Why not just go out the front door?"

Nikki explained as she moved the cabinet and pryed a hidden door in the floorboards open with her staff "Right A: Because if someone spotted us coming out of a supposedly abandoned house, it would draw suspicion as people usually don't go into abandoned places unless they're hiding something inside them. And B: This is a much cooler way to exit a place."

As Zuko looked to see a ladder going downwards, Nikki then asked "Also, aren't you curious to see the tunnel?"

"I suppose I am a bit curious... and both your points do make sense."

Nikki smiled as Pekkala leaped down first "Thought so. Lets go."

* * *

Mai finally made it to Abner and Nikki's house. Outside the house, she saw Abner, Tegs, Balto and Ty lee. No sign of Zuko or Nikki or Azula. Mai figured Azula was still at the arcade, but she didn't know where else Zuko would go or Nikki for that matter. Ty lee then saw her and ran into her and gave her one of her famous breath-sucking hugs "MAI, you're here!"

Mai simply sighed quietly and patted the acrobat's back 3 times "Hi Ty lee. You can let go at any point now you know?"

Ty lee understood what her friend meant and ended the hug. As they walked over to the trio of boys, Mai stopped herself and her friend and asked "Hey, have you seen Zuko, Nikki or Azula?"

"No, I haven't seen Nikki at all or Zuko and Azula since breakfast. Hey, did you and Zuko work out whatever was going on with you too?"

"Not yet, but I was hoping to do so. That's why I'm trying to find him."

"Awww that's sweet of you Mai." Ty lee said grinning widely.

"So, what have you been doing since you got here?"

"Not much really... me and Balto were telling Abner and Tegs something that happened... HEY, you'll never guess what I find out about Balto?"

"He can do acrobatics and block people's chis just like you can?" Mai asked in her emotionless sarcastic tone, figuring it was something similar to her bubbly friend. Ty lee stood, as if stuck to the spot and stared at Mai in shock "HOW DID YOU KNOW?!"

"Hang on, I was right? I wasn't even trying to be right."

"Well he is and it's a good thing too. He kinda saved my life."

"How'd he do that?"

"Those five boys that seemed to like me at the same time asked me to choose one of them to be with, I told them "No" as nice as I could, they got mad and that's when Balto showed up and fought them all off on his own... was kinda heroic." Ty lee said looking away and blushing at the last part of her story.

"Wait so, you were in trouble and Balto appeared out of nowhere? It's almost like he knew you were in danger."

Ty lee looked to her friend with curiousity "Are you trying to say something Mai?"

"I just don't think you should get attached to him until these 4 tell us everything about them."

"Mai, I'm sure they have their reasons. Balto's definetly not lying, I can tell; his aura is very good."

Mai didn't bother saying her non-belief in auras. She instead just gave an "Ugh" and said "You too?" in an annoyed voice.

"What do you mean "Me Too?"?"

"I seem to be the only one who is being cautious around 4 strangers with talking animals, magic and who knows what else."

"Well, it's not like they've hurt us or anything. And whether or not you trust them, I do. Balto really nice to me; I actually kinda... like him. And I think he likes me back."

"You've only known him for 2 days Ty lee!"

"We connect well with each other! And he hasn't lied to me; he told me he has a personal issue and it's not easy for him to talk about, but he said he'll tell me when he feels he can. And I believe him."

Mai's face, mainly her mouth, went sulky. Before she could say anything else, Ty lee then added "Plus, who are we to say that they're not being honest? We haven't been honest about who "Lee" and "Ilah" really are."

"Well, Zuko and Azula have their reasons."

"And they most likely have their reasons. I bet the moment they tell us, it will make sense why they didn't tell us right away. But until then, just try and be a bit more open and positive around them. They have told us some details... like about their daemons' dragon forms for instance."

Mai did suppose that she had been a bit unfair to them. Ty lee wasn't wrong about the 2 of them not saying to the 3 boys and their daemons that the other 2 teens with them were in factt Prince Zuko and Princess Azula of the Fire Nation. But that didn't change that they could already know as Nikki and her daemon Pekkala somehow knew and could've told them and they could be pretending to not know their real identities. But then again, she supposed she could lighten up. If she did, they'd feel they could trust them and when there's trust, there's a chance of them telling them what they deserve to know. When Mai saw Balto come over, she lightened her expression up a bit. She may not be smiling, but at least she didn't appear angry or distrustful. Ty lee wondered why her friend's mood appeared to have softened. She turned around to see what Mai was looking at and the acrobat smiled "Hey Balto!"

"Hey Ty lee." He then turned to Mai and asked "It's Mai, right?"

"Right." Mai nodded.

"Look, sorry I interrupted whatever you were talking about, but can I ask what were you talking about? We were getting kinda worried."

"It was just Girl Talk, nothing for you guys to worry about."

"You too coming over then?"

"Sure, we'll come over." Mai said giving a friendly smile for a brief second. Mai then asked "Hey Balto, do you know where Nikki is? Ty lee said she's not with you guys at the moment."

"Yeah, she and Pekkala sometimes go off somewhere to practise magic."

"Where would that be?"

"I dunno. She doesn't say."

Mai felt everything these teens said was stupid. How could they not know where their friend went to to practise magic? She asked him as they joined Abner and Tegs just outside the house "Why not?"

"Nikki said it was to protect the location; the fewer people who know about it, the better chance there is of some items she found remaining secret from those who shouldn't know about them."

"What does she hide in this location?"

"Are you gonna ask questions about me all day?" came a voice from the house's window that even startled Mai. They all looked to see Nikki in what Mai presumed was her bedroom, but how did she get there if she was somewhere else? Or maybe this place where she practises magic is just her bedroom. As the knife-thrower pondered over this, Nikki then said "Hang on, we'll be right out." Mai wondered who else was with her. Maybe it was just her daemon. But she couldn't have been more wrong. What she was not expecting to happen happened; out of the house along with Nikki and the black jaguar named Pekkala was Zuko. Now Mai was beyond furious as well as beyond confused. Ty lee could see her friend's anger as Mai was clenching her fists as tight as she possibly could.

* * *

While serious drama was beginning to play out, Azula found herself being led by Xan and Co to an alleyway after they went back to the princess' temporary house to get the remaining 24 coins she had promised them. As they went through it and turned left, the princess took in what she saw; a small shafty-looking shelter compiling of wooden support beams and metal as a roof with wood on top, probably so that when it rained, it wouldn't be loud or leak through. Seemed smart. Xan knocked on the metal part of the roof thrice and out came 2 kids; a boy looking to be around 12 and a girl looking to be around 11. The boy had light black hair in a small bun, a red long-sleeved top, grey pants, red leg warmers, but surprisingly no shoes on his feet. The girl had short messy brown hair and wore a formal-looking brownish-red long top with pinkish-orange pants and maroon boots that had silver linings on them. What Azula seemed to notice most for some reason was the light brown headband the boy was wearing that had the fire nation school insignia on it and a brownish-red ribbon on the girl's long top. The princess didn't think either one of them could be Tombi as Faida had called Tombi "Xan's ex". She was proven to be true when Xan called them by their apparant names "Kanto? Kat? What are you 2 doing here? Where's Tombi?"

"She's out." Kanto said without a care.

"I can see that, _where_ is she?" Xan asked.

"She's just out." Kanto said again, this time with more irritation.

"Why do you care? You did break her heart." Kat said joining in. Xan covered her eyes with her hand as she groaned. Azula was suprised to hear that it was Xan who broke up with Tombi and not the other way around. It would've explained why Xan didn't want to see her (because she got dumped and didn't want to be around someone who broke up with her). Xan then said "Look, is she gonna be back soon? It's not because I'm trying to get back with her or something. I just need to talk to her."

"What about Xahira?" came an older girl's voice from behind them. Azula, like everyone else turned to see a girl with auburn hair tied up in a small bun and a short pony tail. She wore a red top with a short red waistcoat, 2 dark grey metal bands over her wrists, short baggy pants and she was carrying a small sack over her shoulder. Azula assumed this was the famous Tombi. Her physical appearance seemed fierce and undefeatable (other than with 1 exception which was about to become 2 exceptions). Xan then spoke in what surprisingly sounded like a gentle whisper to the girl "Hey Tombi." Azula was stunned at this change of behaviour; Xan acted dark to pretty much anyone whether they were her allies or her enemies, but to Tombi, she acted like a complete opposite. But the princess kept her stunnedness well masked to avoid unwanted confrontation. Amira then spoke out "Hey Tombi, can we... talk to you about something? In private?"

Tombi gave a happy sigh as she walked past them and headed to the 2 younger kids "Alright then, just give me a sec." Azula saw the 4 teens going behind the corner of the alleyway and followed after them. As she walked over to across from where they were standing, she saw Xan's face looking down, almost as if she was about to blush, but she didn't. The princess found it strange that she knew the battle strategies her uncle, grandfather and great-grandfather used exactly and could figure out how to use them herself when in changing situations in a fight, but couldn't figure out why a person would agree to see a person that they had broken up with and appear to act so civil around them. Tombi finally came over to them and asked "Okay then, what's all this about then?"

Xan gestured an open palm to Azula as she spoke "This is Ilah; she's the one who wanted to talk to you. She just needed our help finding you."

Tombi took one look at Azula and then gave a short sigh before saying to her "Look, I'm sure you're a nice girl and all, but I'm not interested in dating."

"That is not the reason why I was looking for you... I've heard you're the second best player at Street Bender and I was wondering if you'd play against me."

Tombi looked puzzled as she said in a low voice "You're thinking of challenging Abner, aren't you?" Azula was wondering why she sounded this way; she thought Tombi would be slighly arrogant about Street Bender having only lost to one person. She answered her suspicion honestly "Yeah... why are you making it sound like a bad thing?"

"Well no offense kid, but I think you're wasting your time. And this isn't me being arrogant nor cowardly; this is me giving you a warning; Abner has never lost to anyone in Street Bender and I'm the only person who has ever come close to defeating him."

Azula was about to argue her doubt in her, but an unexpected voice that defended her haulted the princess' voice before it could leave her mouth "What makes you think she'll lose?" Xan asked walking up next to Ilah "She has literally just bested the 4 of us and I'm not kidding when I say she's as fierce as Abner is."

Xan's words seemed to have affected Tombi as she asked with raised eyebrows "Really?" to Xan and her allies, to which they all silently nodded in embarressment. Tombi looked back to Azula and asked "How come you want to play against him in the first place? And also, how many more opponents do you need to face off against?"

"Abner's sister said I had a chance of beating him; she said I played as good as him, so he made a bet that if I can defeat as many oppponents as he has, then he'll play against me in a game... and I accepted... and I only need 1 more victory."

"Hmm, well you're smart to save me as your final opponent and there is absolutely no way Nikki would lie about someone playing as good as her brother... okay I'll challenge you."

* * *

 **15 minutes later:**

* * *

"Wow... Xan and Nikki were not kidding when they recommended you as fierce." Tombi said after an intense battle of Street Bender. Azula did think she was going to lose after her character was hit twice in a row, but she luckily found one weakness; both times she was hit, Tombi had hit her on the right. This implied the reflexes in her left hand wasn't as strong as the one's in her right, which is why she made her character's left arm appear like it was about to strike so that when Azula thought she was moving her character out of the way, she was actually falling into the trap. Azula improvised on Tombi's tactic and had her character appear like it would go to the right of the ring, but then pulled to the left at the last minute, making her character able to hit her opponent twice and then delivered the final blow with a perfectly timed dodge-then-hit move. She had done it. She had defeated 38 opponents in a row and could finaly challenge Abner. With that fact in mind, she smiled at her victory and left the 5 people she had bested without saying a word.

* * *

Mai wasn't the only one surprised at seeing Nikki and Zuko coming out of Nikki's bedroom, Abner seemed freaked out a little, so he asked "What exactly is going on?"

Nikki seem confused at why everyone was looking at her the way they were, but then realised what they were thinking "Oh. It's not what you're thinking... here's what happened; see, the place I go to to practise magic; turns out it's Lee and Ilah's old family summer house. He found me in it and we just kinda hung out there for a bit and after we got bored, we left through a hidden passage that leads from there to my bedroom."

"Is that all? Or is there more and you just can't tell us for some reason?" Mai asked, not bothering to hide the hostility she felt to this girl. Nikki appeared dumbfounded at the sound of her voice, as did Zuko even though he knew exactly what she was thinking. Nikki then turned to Zuko and said "Wow, you weren't kidding when you said she thinks you like me and I like you." This sudden sentence made Balto and Tegs cover the big smiles currently on their faces while Abner turned to Mai and said while looking as if he was about to burst out laughing "Wait, you seriously think that?"

"Well it would explain why my boyfriend would want to defend 4 teens who aren't exactly telling us everything." Mai almost exclaimed.

Nikki looked down to the sand for a few moments and then said in a simple sounding voice in complete contrast to her usual rebellious-sounding voice "You know what? You're right about one thing Mai; we're not saying everything that needs to be said. But I promsie you, if you knew the reasons, you would understand."

"What could possibly be so bad that you can't just tell us?"

"Right, come on then, I'll show you something that'll prove I'm not lying." Nikki said gesturing Mai to come inside her house with her. The girl also gestured to Zuko to come with them. He tried going up next to Mai, but she sped up her walking. As they went into Nikki's bedroom, Mai watched as she told Pekkala who had changed into a horse to keep watch at the window and then, she used her staff to pry open some floorboards in a far corner in her bedroom. She went down it and Zuko followed her. Mai then said outloud to no one "Ugh, what do I have to lose at this point?" and jumped down the floorboards. When she landed, she saw that Zuko had a fire ball in his hand to act as a torch. Then, Nikki lit a fire ball with her staff.

"I thought you said you were a non-bender."

"I am a non-bender. I said the night the 4 of us met that without this staff, I'd be both a helpless non-bender and dead. I don't know how, but this staff somehow allows me to bend all 4 elements."

"Or maybe you're some kind of new avatar after the previous one was killed in Ba Sing Se. That would explain why you and you're friends are being so secretive and I bet your so-called "Magic" was just you bending the elements."

Nikki's face scrunched darker than Mai's "First off, magic. Is. Real... I didn't lie about that nor about how horrible my so-called parents were to me. And second off, I'm not the avatar! If I was, I'm pretty sure I'd be both a baby and in either the North Pole or the South Pole right now."

Mai still appeared unconvinced even though she wasn't wrong; the next avatar after the air nomads would start off as a waterbender and would only have been born. Nikki then said "Okay... I'll prove it." As she earthbent up a rectangular pillar that covered her staff save for the top part where the fire ball was. She then walked up to directly in front of Mai and said "Without that staff, I can't bend the elements; in other words if you shot of the 12 arrows strapped on either one of your ankles, I wouldn't be able to stop them." Mai's face seemed scared at how this girl knew a lot of specific things. Afer that had sunk into the knife-thrower, Nikki then said something that seemed to not only scare her, but also shock her boyfriend "So if you believe I'm lying about being a non-bender, take one of those darts and put it through my chest right now."

Mai would never admit this, but she wanted to do it deep down; if Nikki really was the next avatar, Mai could officialy end the one person who could stop the Fire Nation's victory in the now-ended war as well as eliminate a potential threat to her's and Zuko's relationship. But she couldn't bring herself to kill, so he emotionless girl just stood straing down at Nikki's eyes before lightly exhaling through her nose and looking away by looking at the floor. Nikki gave a small smile before stepping back and grabbing her staff from the going-back-into-the-ground-via-earthbending-pedestal. Nikki held up her staff to the floorboards of her bedroom with the fire ball still on it and told Mai and Zuko, once she was looking up, to "Look up."

Mai and Zuko looked up and saw white tally marks scratched into the bottom of the floorboards. They appeared to have been scratched in by a sharp white rock, but before either one of them could guess or ask how they were scratched in or what they represented, she saw that Nikki had begun whirling her hands and creating a small blue cloud that made the room glow in the same light blue as the cloud. Zuko asked as he and Mai gathered round it "What is that?"

"A memory cloud. It's used to show a person's memories."

"So, you're gonna show us rather than tell us?" Mai asked.

"Yeah I'm gonna show you what happened while me and Zuko walked back here... but first, I'm gonna show you the origins of those tally marks." Nikki answered as she whirled her hands to show Mai and Zuko a memory of hers from 10 years and 1 day ago...

* * *

 _Flashback:_

 _Nikki was 3 years old, but not for long. It was the night before her 4th birthday and she was excited. Her 6 year old brother Abner explained to her that a birthday was celebrating a person for the day they were born and for Nikki, that day was tomorrow. She was excited about getting presents, eating cake and playing all sorts of games with Abner and his 2 friends Tengshu and Balto. As she was running about in her bedroom in attempt to let all the excitement out, she haulted after hearing a creaky sound whenever she ran over the floorboards near the corner of her bedroom. She went to the corner and pressed her hands into the floor as hard as she could and heard a creaky sound again. She continued to until she couldn't no more due to them collapsing with Nikki falling down with them. The 3 year old let out a scream until she hit a second floor. Luckily, the fall didn't last long and she wasn't hurt anywhere and looked about. She looked up and saw the hole that she had fallen down and began jumping in attempt to get out, but she couldn't reach. She called for help, but no one came. She was stuck there, so she explored to pass the time. She stumbled upon a sharp white rock and drew some squiggles on the walls. As she was getting bored, she heard footsteps from above and rushed back to the hole to see a familiar 6 year old head "Abner!"_

 _"Nikki?! What happened?!"_

 _"I heard creaky sounds in the floor and they fell down when I pressed down on them... aaaand... I fell down with them."_

 _"Hang tight! I'm gonna get something to pull you out!"_

 _"Okay!" Nikki heard him run out and then back again. He lowered a long stick into the hole and called down to her "Grab on to the stick!" So, she did "I've got it!" Nikki was then pulled up back into her bedroom. She then hugged Abner tightly who hugged back as equally as tight. He hen asked her "Why didn't you call for help Nikki? Mum and Dad have been in the house for a while and hey could've got you out sooner."_

 _"I... did call for help; no one came." Nikki said with confused sadness. She had cried out as loud as she could until her throat and her ears hurt. Abner said "Maybe they couldn't hear you."_

 _Nikki knew that her parents must've heard her, but not wanting her brother to get upset and have doubts, she agreed with his theory "Yeah maybe."_

 _"Anyway, you excited about tomorrow?"_

 _"You bet."_

 _"Huh. Come on, I'll tuck you in bed." Abner said as he picked Nikki up, lay her in her bed and pulled the covers over her body. He then pulled something out from behind his back, revealing a cylinder wrapped up in shiny red paper "I was gonna give this to you tomorrow, but I want you to open it now."_

 _"Aww, thanks! You're the best Abner!" the 3 year old said with wonder in her eyes. She took it and removed the paper to reveal a big red candle with yellow and black swirls engraved into it "It's lovely... what's it for?"_

 _"Give it here and I'll show you." Nikki complied her brother's words and watched as he set it on her bedside table, lit a small ball of fire in his hand and placed it on the top of the candle. "This is a very special candle; it keeps bad dreams away as well as your room lit so you can fall asleep quicker."_

 _Nikki let out an adorable yawn "It's working... gunight Abner." she said quietly as she slid under her cover with half-open eyes. Abner gave her a kiss before saying "Sweet dreams Nikki." After Abner left, Nikki opened her eyes and got out of bed to the hole in her floor. This time, she had a way in and out of the hole; the long stick._

* * *

After 3 year old Nikki went down the hole, the image disappeared and went back into a blue cloud, which then vanished. As Nikki re-lit the room with her staff as the fame had gone out, Zuko asked "Wait, what happened, why'd you stop the memory?"

"Cos that was all you needed to see." Nikki said in a voice void of any of her usual enthusiasm. Mai then asked with guilt in her voice as well as on her face "Why did you go back down the hole?"

"I went back down there to think. I just... couldn't in my bedroom for some reason. I kept wondering how my parents couldn't have heard me; I knew there was no way they couldn't have heard me, so the conclusion I drawed on was they were ignoring me... like I didn't even exist. Ever since that day, I attempted to get them to acknowledge me through various endeavours. From doing some chores for no reason to making messes, breaking furniture, I even stole items that they loved from Lian's jewellery to Ling's family heirlooms. They didn't even scold me; they just grabbed me by my wrist, not caring if they pulled it off and silently pushed me back into my room. Every time my endeavours failed, I used that white rock tied to that stick to mark everyday my parents didn't acknowledge me on those floorboards."

As Zuko continued looking at the many tally marks, he found one that stood out from the rest "Hey, there's only 4 tally marks here with no fifth one going through them; did something change?" he asked with hope that something did change.

"Nothing changed." Nikki said duller than Mai.

"Then... why didin't you mark it?" Mai asked as she walked over to see the odd tally mark out.

Nikki turned away from them "Because I lost hope. I spent a whole year counting days. I didn't even realise it was my 5th birthday until Abner woke me up wishing me happy birthday. After he left the rooms, tears started rolling down my face faster than waterfalls. I didn't bother counting after that... I also didn't return their belongings, they didn't deserve them back in my opinion." After Nikki finished her sentence, a single tear rolled down her cheek. As she turned her head back to Zuko and Mai, who were looking at her and could easily see the tear, she felt her throat getting blocked up and said "Um, I'm gonna go." She fast walked past them and up out of the hole. Zuko and Mai looked to each other with a mixture of sadness and guilt all over their faces as well as seemingly speechless for a while. Zuko finally said quietly "We should go." Mai nodded to that. As they reached the hole, Zuko helped Mai out by lifting her up out of the hole. She looked down on him a gave a nanosecond smile to which he did the same. After she helped Zuko out, they saw Nikki hugging Pekkala who was now in her phoenix griffin form. They saw as tears fell from Nikki's eyes, the tears seemed to burn Pekkala's feathers. When Nikki saw the duo, she let go of Pekkala, who backed off, and Nikki hastily wiped her tears away "Oh (sniff) hey guys."

"Hey." They both said at the same time. Mai then said "Listen, you don't... have to show me whatever you and Z... Lee talked about on your way here, I'll just ask him later."

Nikki gave a sad smile as she nodded her head "Okay." Zuko then went up to her and lightly hugged her. She lightly hugged back and when she did, Mai didn't feel threatened by Nikki. She truely believed Zuko now when he said that he viewed Nikki as a sister as it reminded her of when she hugs her little brother Tom-Tom. As Zuko and Nikki let go, she then tensed up a bit as if she felt something coming and then not only smiled but had her childish enthusiasm back in her voice "Hey, Ilah's coming, let's go." The teen couple were happy to see her happy again. After she left, Zuko turned to Mai and asked "Are we good?"

Mai smiled "For now, we are." The two smiled at each other and then shared a deep kiss before going out to join Nikki.

* * *

As Zuko and Mai followed Nikki into the house, Ty lee asked the boys "Do any of you know what she's gonna tell them?"

"No; there are some things that Nikki doesn't tell us, but it might just be a girl thing." Tegs answered to the acrobat who then asked "How come you laughed at Mai when she thought Nikki might be interested in Lee?"

Abner's face fell for a moment before he said "Oh, sorry if you thought we were being mean; it's just... well Nikki's not exactly interested in dating as she is in mild pranks and being a rebel."

"Really? Not at all?"

"As far as we know, she doesn't... also, I doubt seeing her with any guy from here. Pretty much everyone here teases her just because she doesn't act like regular girls."

"In what ways is she different?"

"She doesn't gossip about boys, doesn't like make-up or even skirts; she only has that red one and she'll onlyl wear it if it's too hot to wear her pants."

Ty lee suddenly became bored and, in atempt to entertain herself, back-flipped on to her hands. Balto smiled at this and copied her by appearing to fall and at the last minute, place his hands on the floor to push himself into doing a 180 turn in he air in order to face Ty lee as he landed on his hands. Ty lee laughed at this, as did Abner and Tegs. Ty lee accepted the challenge of who is the better acrobat by smiling as devious as she could and then, she spun herself around 3 times on only her right hand like an upside-down ballerina before pushing herself up and landing on her index and middle fingers.

"WOOOOOAH." Abner and Tegs both went. Tegs then asked "How'd you do that?!"

"Acrobatics was an act I did at this circus I was in."

"You must've been a popular act."

Ty lee remembered life in the circus; how fun it was, how different and happy she felt, how pink her aura had become... and then Azula came "asking" for her assistance and went as far as to sabotaging her act until she agreed to help her track down the avatar. Not wanting her friend's cover blown, Ty lee rather than saying all that she was thinking about in her head, simply stated "I was."

"Okay then, top this move." Balto said as he

"AWWWWW, if you can not top landing on your head, you're in big trouble Ty lee!"

"Yeah, I don't think I've ever tried balancing on my head before."

"TRY first before doing anything reckless, it is actually quite dangerous." Balto advised. Ty lee nodded and slowly lowered herself on to her head and then removed her hands from the ground. She found it okay until she realised she was falling back "AAH!" However instead of hitting the sand, her back fell into 2 big hands. Balto had somehow caught her before she fell. "Ha-How did you do that?"

"It's kind of a gift I have. Also when you practise acrobatics a lot, it can make you move a lot faster." Balto said as he helped Ty lee up on to her feet. He then asked "Hey, if you were so good in the circus and you enjoyed it, how come you're not in it right now?"

Ty lee had hoped that that question or any other personal questions wouldn't be asked. Lying may be easy, but that didn't make it enjoyable. Then, she remembered what Balto did; he hinted at stuff. If he could do it, why couldn't she? So, she did "Well, in the last performance I did, there was an incident of sorts."

"Did someone suggest to remove the safety net at a random point in the show?"

"No... they suggested to set the net on fire as well as having all the circus' most dangerous animals released into the ring."

"What crazy psycho suggested that?!" Balto exclaimed, unaware that he was talking about the girl he knew as Ilah. Ty lee forced herself to lie again "They left before I could find out, most of the audience left when the animals went too beserk for their entertainment."

"Hmph, bet you would've chi-blocked whoever made that absurd suggestion til you broke something."

"I'm... sure it was just made out of boredom."

"No way. The circus might be the so-called "Home of Fear and Danger", but that's not an excuse to endanger its acts with surprise suggestions."

As Ty lee began to question what Azula did at the circus, she was glad the princess wasn't around to hear his; she'd probably fry him for calling her a crazy psycho, even if she wanted to know what people truely thought of her. Ty lee was also glad that Balto cared for her safety enough to make a case for it. She smiled at him, unaware of Abner and Tegs seeing it and smiling at each other out of Ty lee and Balto's eyesight. Just as they the four were thinking of what to talk about next, a new topic came in the form of a figure approaching the house. Ty lee saw he figure and narrowed her eyes to make out who it was and after recognising them said their name "Hey it's A-..." or at least she almost did "Yeah, it is Ilah!"

The boys turned their heads to see her until they heard a door open, revealing Nikki and a black phoenix griffin to come out from the house. Abner greeted them "Hey Nikki, Pekkala."

"Hey." Nikki said in a cheerful voice. When no one else came out, Ty lee asked "Where are Lee and Mai?"

"I think they're kissing in a way that's making up without the breaking up."

"Oh!" Ty lee giggled out uncontrollably, though was able to stop when Mai and Zuko walked out of the house.

"Hey Ilah!" Nikki waved to Azula, who waved back until Ty lee rushed up and hugged her, to which the princess hugged back. Nikki then asked "You seem happier than usual, how come?"

"38 opponents I have gone up against and 38 opponents... I have now defeated, including the now _third_ best Street Bender player." Azula announced with the poise of both a victor and a princess. She looked to everyone, but mainly to Abner in order to see his expression. She was surprised however that despite his raised eyebrows and eyes widening, he had a big smile on his face. Azula began wondering with a plain face how he couldn't seem threatened even a little. Then again, she was attempting to not show her interest in Abner's expression to her 38 consecutive victories, so maybe he was doing the same thing; atempting to not look intimidaed even though he probably was deep down Nikki however, seemed pleased and excited "Seriously? You bested Tombi?"

"Yes." Azula said with a tilted head mixed with a confused look.

 _ **"YEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHH!"**_ was Nikki's response to hearing Azula's victory along with punching her fists into the air. She was surprised at this reaction, but then she remembered that Nikki was a child at heart. Nikki continued _**"HA HA HA! You OWE me Abner! YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"** _ Abner sighed and said "Okay Nikki; deal's a deal. You get one free, but small prank on Chan and Ruon-jian which isn't dangerous in any way."

Nikki clapped her hands once, happy that she had won the bet from this morning, and then said for a third time in the same masculer-sounding voice as before _ **"YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHH!"**_

"What is going on?" Mai asked with what looked as close as Mai could look to afraid as she and Zuko came over. Nikki still appeared to be celebrating, so Abner answered for her "Nikki made a bet with me in order to be able to prank Chan and Ruon-jian, she proposed that it must be allowed if Ilah defeated the remaining number of opponents she needed to defeat today."

"What if Nikki lost the bet?"

Tegs answered this time "Nikki said she'd go a whole month with no fire flakes and attempt to act like a regular girl for the rest of her natural life."

Mai then turned to Nikki and said in her dull sarcastic tone, but with a friendlier face "I'm guessing you love fire flakes."

Nikki face and voice then got serious "Only Ember Island brand fire flakes. Fire flakes that were made from anywhere that is not Ember Island are not real fire flakes; they're too bland and taste _digusting_ , but only a small number of peope can tell."

"Seriously?" Mai asked seeming unconvinced of this theory; after the fire nation took over what is now called The City of New Ozai, they had all sorts of fire nation foods made there, including fire flakes. She had eaten some herself during that apparant pentapox plague and the fire flakes didn't taste neither bland nor disgusting as Nikki had put it.

"Tell ya what, come inside; lets do a test." Nikki said as she went back inside. The boys gestured them to follow, so they did. Mai hoped they weren't going into another secret room. Luckily, the only room they went into was a non-secret living room. The daemons, now all in their adolescent-sized wild cat forms went to the ground near a short table in front of 2 sofas that were around it. As Nikki got 2 big bowls from the cupboards, Azula, Zuko, Mai and Ty lee took in the living room. It seemed nicer thaan the outside of the house as it was cleaner and fresher, but to Azula's surprise, it seemed as simple as Lo and Li's house. She wondered why the children of an admiral didn't have a house like Chan did. And not just an admiral; a famous admiral too. Azula found the more they learnt about these 4 teens, the more things didn't make sense. She planned to ask later, but for now decided to go along with this apparant test that Nikki had planned. She saw Nikki empty 2 big sacks of what she guessed were fire flakes into the bowls. She then picked the bowls up and placed them on the small table. She turned to the four guests and said as she gestured to the sofas "Please... make yourselves at home."

They complied; Zuko and Mai sat don on 1 sofa while Azula and Ty lee sat down on the other. Abner and Balto sat on the ends on the sofa Azula and Ty lee were on while Tegs joined Nikki on the flloor next to their respective daemons. Nikki began explaining the test "I have this theory that only 5% of people in the whole world can taste the difference between Ember Island fire flakes and the bland, digusting fire flakes made elsewhere."

"Why can only 5% taste the difference if there is one?" Mai asked with no doubt that Nikki's theory wasn't true.

"Because the other 95% **_doesn't_** complain."

Mai just sat there unsure of what to say. After being certain Mai wouldn't answer back, Nikki continued "Anyway, here we have 2 bowls of fire flakes; one Ember Island brand, the other Elsewhere bland. See if you can taste the difference." They looked at one another and then proceeded to take a fire flake each from the left bowl first and ate it. No one seemed to complain, but when they took a fire flake from the bowl on the right, there was a different reaction; Mai and Ty lee didn't seem to complain; but Zuko and Azula found these fire flakes to not taste very good. Nikki saw they didn't enjoy the second fire fakes as their faces scrunched up. She then said to the royal siblings "I'm guessing you 2 didn't enjoy the second fire flakes."

"No." as all that came out of Azula's mouth while Zuko just nodded in agreement with his sister. Mai and Ty lee were shocked as they couldn't taste any difference. Ty lee said "Really? They both taste the same to me."

"Same with me." Mai said.

"Well that confirms it, you 2 are apart of the rare 5%." Nikki said to Zuko and Azula.

"Anyone else apart of this apparant elite group?"

"Me, Abner and Tegs are; Balto sadly isn't."

"If only one of you isn't apart of the 5% if that's even true, why do have so many fire flakes that aren't from Ember Island?" Mai asked.

"Okay first, you seriously need to believe in something; no offense or anything, but your non-believer vibe is duller than your voice." Nikki said with a bored look on her face. "Secondly, I may not eat fire flakes that aren't from here but that doesn't mean you can't use them for... _other purposes_."

"When you say "other purposes", wht exactly do you mean by that?" Azula asked as Nikki made it sound diabolical. Abner answered before she did while grabbing some fire flakes from the bowl on the left "If you're lucky, you'll see at some point before you go home."

"Tell you what, I've just remembered we're out of buzzard wasp honey, Balto think you could get some?"

"Sure thing, you stay here Jahar." Balto said as he took off the silver bands on his left wrist and put it on Balto's left front leg as Jahar said "Got it."

Nikki then turned her head to Ty lee with a big cheeky smile "Hey Ty lee, why don't you go with Balto?; I'm sure he could use _ **some**_ company.

"Ha ha Nikki." Balto said to her with heavy, but giddy sarcasm in his voice. It however changed to quiet and shy-sounding when he turned his head to Ty lee and said "But you can come if you want too."

"Okay, I'll come!" Ty lee said with glee as she bounced up from the sofa, secretly eager to spend more alone time with Balto. Her springiness was only short as once she went outside, Balto was standing still just a few feet away from the house. Unbeknowenst to the happy, female acrobat, the dark, male acrobat was tensed up as he was looking to the sun that was starting to set into the horizon. He began fearing for the safety of Ty lee and her friends as after sunset, they may run into Darla or Drusilla. But then he remembered it technically still wasn't after sunset and there was time to get the buzzard wasp honey. He turned his head to Ty lee as she asked with worry "Is something wrong Balto?" He told her "Nah nothing's wrong, just didn't realise time fly that quick."

"It is really strange when it does that." Ty lee agreed as they continued walking while also thinking it was also kinda beautiful and a little romantic. She asked "Where are we going to get buzzard wasp honey?"

Balto let out a happy exhale from his nose before saying "Well not from a buzzard wasp; but I know someone who can get their hands on literally anything."

* * *

After walking a while, Balto and Ty lee reached the entrance to an alleyway. It appeared dark and a little spooky to Ty lee and the sound of the wind blowing into it wasn't helping her to get over her minor fears. She backed up a little, but a big hand wrapping around her own made her smile a little and give her a confidence boost to follow him inside. Though it didn't stop her from expressing her thoughts "Seems a bit gloomy down here." After saying that, Balto turned his head to her and she saw he had a curious yet sour look on his face which she tried to change by faking a smile as she said "Not that I'm scared or anything." But a clanking sound from the shadows above their heads made Ty lee panic, yelp and hug Balto tightly as if tryingg to bury herself in him. He hugged her back for comfort and said up to the darkness "KAT. COME DOWN OR I'M COMING UP AFTER YOU."

Ty lee then looked up again to see a small figure come down. At first, she thought it was an actual cat based on the sleek movement, but up-close, she saw it was a girl around 11 years old with messy brown hair who asked in a tough yet whiny voice "Ugh, how'd you know it was me?!"

"You keep forgetting you're not the only one on Ember Island with heightened senses."

"Hmph." was all that came out of Kat's closed mouth before she said with her mouth open "Whadda ya want Balto? And who's the scaredy cat with you?" she asked while looking at Ty lee with uninterest in her eyes. As Ty lee looked hurt by the insult, Balto just stated her name "Her name's Ty lee, and you'd be scared too if this was your first time coming to a dark, gloomy alleyway at night."

Kat just shook her head left to right "No I wouldn't. I don't fear the dark; I _ **see**_ in the dark." Ty lee thought this girl sounded scary, but Balto's expressionless face and voice remained unchanged "Sure you do Kat; look, can we just see Tombi? We need some buzzard wasp honey."

Kat sighed "Look, I enjoy hearing stories about Nikki's pranks as much as anyone, including the ones with just fire flakes and buzzard wasp honey, but I don't think Tombi's in the mood for talking right now."

"Why not? Is something wrong with her?" Ty lee asked in attempt to make the girl called Kat act a bit more nice to her. Though, Kat's expression and voice remained the same "If you must know, she basically got her butt kicked when some girl took her title as Second Best Street Bender Player. And deep down, she was upset enough when her girlfriend dumped her." Balto's and Ty lee's eyes widened as they both were aquainted with the girl who defeated Tombi. They somehow both knew to not mention that as it could lessen their chances of getting buzzard wasp honey. Balto then asked "I'm sorry to hear that about her, but is there seriously nothing we can do to ge some honey now?"

"There might be." came a masculine voice from a 12 year o'd boy with a brown headband with the fire nation school insignia on it as well as what looked like 2 matching sticks in his hands that reminded Ty lee of the escrima sticks used in the circus' balancing act. As Ty lee recalled the man in her circus who could balance up to 20 escrima sticks on his body at one time, Balto greeted the boy "Hey Kanto."

"Hey, if you want some honey, then I guess you could get us some spark rocks; we're fresh out of em and we need a way to start a fire."

"What for?" Ty lee asked.

"To set a certain scaredy cat who keeps asking stupid questions on fire." Kat said as she leaned against the wall with her short arms crossed. Ty lee was certain she was joking, but it didn't sound like it. Balto's voice darkened a little "Hysterical Kat."

"I was just kidding!" Kat said with smile that turned to serious as she continued with the real reason "We just need them to set a fire that'll warm this place up."

Ty lee then recalled another act in her circus that could help these kids with their warmth problem "If a fire's all you want, I know a way of starting one without spark rocks."

Everyone, even Balto, seemed shocked at this. Kanto asked "Just how would you know starting a fire without spark rocks?"

"If I'm to tell you, you have to swear to never reveal it to anyone; I used to be in a circus and in return for the acts telling you their tricks, they make you swear to secrecy." After they promised, Ty lee revealed the secret "One of the acts was animals jumping through hoops that "magically" set on fire at random points during the show. How they actually set on fire is strings hidden under these small dirt tunnels in the arena. The strings lead from the hoops to the outside where a single stick is used to set the strings on fire. That way, no one would hear any sounds of a fire being started like you normally would wih a firebender or spark rocks."

"That does sound like a good trick." came a third voice. Everyone turned to see Tombi. She continued "Don't worry, I won't tell either and I'll make certain these 2 rascals don't." she said as she grabbed Kanto and Kat into a headlock and gave them both playful noogies, to which they laughed at. After being let go, Kanto walked back to the outside of the trio's apparant home. Tombi and Kat followed him and after waiting back a bit, Balto and Ty lee followed after them. Kanto threw one of his sticks to Ty lee, who caught it, and then he asked her "So how do you set a fire with one stick?"

Ty lee came over to him and got down on her knees "Like this." She placed one end of the stick on some cloth and began rubbing her hands with the stick in-between them. She continued this until smoke appeared on the cloth and with one blow, a fire as born. Kanto copied what Ty lee did and a second fire appeared. After a short celebration of "Yays", Tombi went into her house of wood and metal and came back out with some honey that she gave to Balto. He thanked her, but before the 2 acrobats could leave, Tombi stopped them "Hey Ty lee, can you hang on for one more sec, I... wanna ask you something."

As Kat and Kanto went in the house to sleep, Balto and Ty lee looked at each other wih uncertainty. Ty lee finally answered "Sure, what is it?" While Balto walked back out the alleyway, Tombi spoke with Ty lee "So, I heard you ask Kat if I was okay; that's real sweet of you." Ty lee smiled at this compliment. Tombi continued "Here's what I want to ask you... do you think it's crazy to still love someone even after they dump you for a reason that seems stupid to everyone except for themself?"

Ty lee really did want to help this girl, but wasn't certain on how to answer as she didn't know what happened, so she asked the street wise street girl "Could you tell me what happened?; I just think I'd be able to help you better if I knew what happened."

Tombi sighed, but agreed "Okay well, you know how when you meet a couple and you only seem to take one of them seriously?" Ty lee nodded at this; of Mai and Zuko dating, Ty lee probably took Mai more seriously than Zuko as Mai may not express her emotions a lot, but she wasn't the one who over-reacted over every little problem. Tombi continued "Well before me and Xan dated, people took us seriously; but when we started dating, people only took me seriously and not her. Xan had this reputation of being feared and when we went public, people thought she had gone soft. So, she publically dumped me to get people to fear her again... is it crazy to still love her?"

"Is... that the only reason she broke up with you?" Ty lee asked in a gentle quiet voice. After Tombi nodded yes, Ty lee then said "I'm sure she didn't want to do it; she's probably use to being feared and didn't want it to go away."

Tombi gave a sad smile "Yeah, I'm sure it was just that... thanks Ty lee." The 2 girls hugged for a moment before saying goodbye.

* * *

When Ty lee came back out, Balto was waiting for her. He asked her "So what did Tombi want?"

"She just wanted to ask a personal question, nothing to worry about."

Balto nodded, glad that Ty lee could help someone. As he walked her home, he remembered what had been said at breakfast; that he would say something tomorrow and he promised he would and he intended to keep his promise. So, he stopped to say "Hey Ty lee?"

"Yeah?"

"This morning, I promised I'd be honest tomorrow about my "Family Matter" and I'm gonna do that. Tomorrow, I'm gonna be up on that cliff over there early in the morning" he said pointing to a cliff on the other end of a forest "Meet me there and I'll tell you the absolute truth."

"Really?! That's so good Balto!" Ty lee expressed with joy.

"Yeah, I'm just worried it might change how you think of me is all... but you do deserve the truth." Balto said while looking down at the sand.

"I... doubt it'll change how I think of you too much." Ty lee said as she felt a moment to find out if she truely loved Balto. But as she got closer to him, prepaing to kiss him, he suddenly backed up before her lips could touch his "Wait, whadda you doing?" After hearing this and seeing his rejection, Ty lee paniced and went "A-I just thought cos... we have a lot in common, the... way you get when you hold my hand and... how well we connect?"

Balto couldn't believe this; Ty lee was giving him heart and confessing how she felt about him. He loved hearing this as his friends were right about him liking her, but at the same time he hated it because he couldn't be with her. He hated what he had to do so she wouldn't obsess over him "Oh... er... Ty lee... I'm sorry if you thought I was leading you on but... I... I... I just think of you as a friend."

He already hated breaking her heart as small tears formed from her eyes, but she still stared at him with sorrow and heartbreak, so the tears didn't roll down her cheeks right away. Balto couldn't stay any longer; he slowly walked away. Unbeknownst to Ty lee, Balto didn't close his eyes to cry silently until his back was to Ty lee, shocked at the pain he had inflicted upon himself and probably the first girl he has ever loved. Unbeknowest to Balto, Ty lee did the same; closing her eyes and crying silent tears as she walked the rest of the way to Lo and Li's house confused, hurt and upset. And unbeknownst to both of them, a figure with glowing amber eyes had been watching the duo under the cover of a bush in the forest. When the figure stood up, it was revealed to be Darla smiling.

* * *

After Nikki had escorted Azula, Zuko and Mai home shortly after Balto and Ty lee left, she came back home and she, Abner and Tegs had got into their pyjamas and were having tomato-carrot soup for supper. Balto came home with tears on his face. His friends saw this and put their suppers aside. Nikki rushed up to him and hugged him "Balto, what's wrong?"

"I screwed up big time." Balto said as he sunk to his knees and buried his face into Nikki's shoulder.

"Ty lee told me that she loved me and tried to kiss me (sniff sniff) but, I rejected her and told her I just wanted to be friends."

"Oh Balto, I'm so sorry." Nikki said as she tightened the hug. After he broke away, Tegs gave him a tissue and then patted him on his back. Abner offered him his soup which he accepted but didn't eat yet. "You were right; I do like Ty lee, and I should've said something to her much earlier (sniff)."

"Then tell her this; tell her everything, I know she'll understand." Nikki said with boldness and pride.

Balto's tears seemed to cease as he put a confident look on his face and nodded to his friends "I will. Tomorrow, I will; like I promised her I would."

* * *

Azula, Zuko and Mai were shortly escorted home by Nikki shortly after Balto and Ty lee left. Before they had left, they discussed when Abner and Azula would fight. They decided after breakfast, they would go to the arcade and find out once and for all, who was the better Street Bender player. When they went inside, they heard snoring from Lo and Li's bedroom and saw on the hexagon table what was probably their supper. As they ate, Azula asked her brother and friend "So, are you 2 finally gonna tell me what was going on earlier?"

Zuko sighed knowing Azula would never give up "Fine, Mai thought I liked Nikki in a romantic way, but Nikki's magic abilities proved her wrong."

Azula had a wide grin on her face as she turned to Mai "So you were jealous Mai? That doesn't sound like you."

Mai decided to ignore Azula's grin to prevent more embarressing nonsense descend upon her "I think I just felt threatened by her, but I guess I was just over-reacting; they do seem trustworthy."

After letting that out, Mai turned to her boyfriend and asked him "So, what did happen between you and Nikki?"

"Well, she told me about that staff of hers allowing her to bend the 4 elements, she said if I thought she as lying to attack her. But I could tell she was being honest. I asked her what she thought of me and she said she liked me."

"Liked you how?" Azula asked.

"Like a friend." Zuko said. "I told her what you said Mai and she promised she didn't like me more than a friend. She just liked that I didn't treat her like a helpless kid."

"What do you mean? She's obviously not helpless." Mai said.

"Well, when Nikki's illness is at its worse, she seems helpless and her friends, mainly her brother, treat her like a kid and are a little too over-protective of her. So she liked that I didn't treat her differently when I learnt about her illness."

At that moment, they heard quiet snivelling and saw Ty lee walk past them quickly to the bedroom. Azula and Mai got up, but Zuko decided to hold back as he wasn't as close to Ty lee as his sister and girlfriend were. When Azula and Mai saw Ty lee, she had tears on her face. Mai got angry "Ty lee what happened? Did Balto hurt you?"

"No (sniff) not like that (sniff). I told Balto how I felt about him, but he doesn't feel the same way about me." After that, Ty lee collapsed on to her knees and covered her face with her hands so Lo and Li wouldn't wake up. Mai and Azula got down and hugged her. Neither one was good with emotion, which Ty lee knew, so she just broke out of their hug and got under her covers in attempt to go to sleep. She said before pulling the covers over her head "You were right Mai; I shouldn't have got attached to him." Mai felt guilt-ridden inside after hearing this. Zuko came in to see what had happened, but from what he saw, things weren't good. The 3 teens, rather than discuss it further, got into their beds and attempted to sleep knowing Ty lee's heart had been hurt enough tonight. As she lay under her covers with the sheets over her head, Ty lee thought in her head as she went to sleep _"I'll get answers...Tomorrow I will."_

* * *

 **Yes, I've introduced Kanto into my fanfic and Yes; it is the same Kanto who is Lin Beifong's father. Here's why I've done this; we don't know for certain who Kanto is, so I decided to add my idea of what he may be like. The reasons I have him as fire nation is because 1) Lin does kind of look like a fire nation woman to me. 2) I saw this comparison image of Lin and Azula (who was one time said to be Lin's dad on Tumblr as a joke). 3) I saw this fanart of Toph introducing Lin to a statue of her father and Lin saying it's a statue of a firebender. If you want to see what he, Kat and Tombi look like, you can now; I've added them to my album on avatarthelastairbenderonline.**

 **Also, Kat is based off Selina Kyle from the TV series Gotham, both in appearance and personality.**


End file.
